When Black You Find the Night
by Cedfia123
Summary: Fourth in a series, takes place after "Illuminate Nacht". Six years in the future, Cedric and Sofia are living their 'Happily Ever After'. But will Sofia's fear, that fate never lets anyone be happy without extracting a price, become reality? How far into darkness would Cedric descend to save her? And will she ever be able to bring him back? (M rated Cedfia)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this is the bigger story I've been leading up to. It's actually the one I imagined first, and the ones I've already written came later. I'm excited to finally be writing it.**

 **It's the fourth in a series, and at this point you'll probably need to read the others to understand this one.**

 **We've jumped in time again. This story takes place 7 years after "How to Make a Birthday Perfect". And I'll be jumping perspectives in order to round out the story. So I'll let you know who I'm sneaking a peak into at the beginning of every chapter.**

 **Also the first chapters are pretty sugary, but as you can tell from the title we'll be getting angsty and dark soon enough.**

 **Disclaimer: Sofia is 25, Cedric is 41 and I don't own them or anyone else.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric was wet.

Feeling the tiny drops of rain pelt at his face, he realized he'd been asleep.

Opening his eyes, Cedric sat up to find it was in fact drizzling lightly and he was now quite alone on the picnic blanket under the large willow.

His last memory was of laughter and carrot cake and sunshine. But then the weather on the Ruby Isles could be mercurial. One moment the sun was golden bright and the sky azure blue, the next you found yourself in a downpour under a slate gray cover of clouds.

He'd never much liked the rain. But the Isles had changed his mind about it. At least they'd changed his mind about liking rain here. Because whenever it rained here, however gray the sky got, however harshly the thunder cracked, however hard the drops fell, when it cleared the most brilliant, beautiful rainbow would arch its way across the sky.

And as Cedric had been informed on more than occasion, by an earnest voice and a serious little face, rainbows were nature's magic.

Hearing the sound of laughter by the lake, Cedric turned to see the owner of that little face was not at all serious right now.

She had Cedric's wand in her hand and was running with her skirts held up over her knobby, adorable knees as Clover hopped beside her. She was being chased by her mother, whose own skirt was flirting dangerously high on her shapely legs as Wormwood flew overhead cawing in mock threat.

Apparently they'd decided to let him catch an afternoon nap while they played one of their favorite games: Warrior Sorceress.

"I, the Evil Enchantress will capture you Warrior Sorceress, and then there will be no one to stop me from ruling the Ruby Isles, hahaha!" The woman cackled.

Cedric knew this game and was prepared to hear the standard response when the little girl looked toward the tree.

"Mama look! Daddies finally awake!"

With that, the little imp ran towards him, all thought of the game forgotten for now.

"Daddy," she said crashing into him full force while her arms wrapped around him in a hug just short of suffocating. "Daddy we found frogs at the other side of lake! Clover tried to eat one of their lily pads and Mama said they were very upset, but we found them a new one, and Wormwood says he doesn't like frogs but he'd rather talk to a frog than a rabbit, and that made Clover really mad, and ohh you have to come meet the frogs! They're really friendly."

"I see I've missed all the fun." He said standing with the little bundle of dirty skirts and big smiles still wrapped around his neck.

Just then Sofia caught up with them.

Her cheeks where pink from running, her skin dewy with a combination of the exertion and the rain, her hair a wild auburn halo framing her face and cascading down her back.

She was the most exquisite thing he'd ever seen. Not even the passage of seven years could dull the way his heart squeezed and his body tightened every time he saw her. He was beginning to realize his love and desire for her would probably never diminish, no matter how long they were together.

After all, the near mystical hold she had on his heart had started long before they became lovers. She'd been the most important person in his life for nearly twenty years. In that time his feelings for her had changed, but they had only ever gotten stronger, more complex and intricate, not less.

"You looked so peaceful, we thought we'd let you get some rest." She said, fitting herself into his side and putting her arm around his waist.

"Thank you." He said, leaning down to lay a soft, lingering kiss on her lips.

"Hey, that's my daddy!" The little pixie in his arms declared, half indignant half amused.

Lifting his mouth from Sofia's, Cedric watched a fake scowl form on his wife's face.

"He _is_ your daddy, but he's also _mommies_ Prince Charming. If you want to kiss anyone like that you'll have to go find your own prince Ms. Miranda!" Sofia declared sticking out her tongue and crossing her eyes, to make their daughter laugh.

He wanted to argue with that statement, but there was very little point in arguing anything with these two. Miranda would remind him he was in fact a Prince and Sofia would insist he was the most handsome and charming man on earth. It was hopeless really. He'd never won a single argument with Sofia in seventeen years. And now they'd gone and made a mini-Sofia who'd apparently absorbed her mother's talent for wrapping him around her finger in the womb.

"Let's wait on that a few years, shall we." He said instead, claiming a little kiss from the small Princess he carried and a much larger one from the bigger Princess whose body was still tucked tightly against his own.

"Now, I'm told I must meet some frogs."

The rest of the afternoon was spent inspecting lily pads, having conversations with the frogs and other animals at the lake (with Sofia playing translator), and finishing their game of Warrior Sorceress in which Cedric now became the handsome prince trapped in an enchantment which could only be broken by the wave of Miranda's (his) wand and a kiss on the each cheek. And one on the nose…just for good measure.

As they walked back to the castle, under a now clear but darkening sky, Cedric looked at his two beauties and wondered how life had turned out so well for a skinny, awkward, misfit boy who'd grown into an vengeful, malevolent man with less than savory dreams of political overthrow.

Sometimes it seemed like he'd walked into someone else's life.

As though the author of Sofia's fairytale had somehow gotten blocked when creating her real Prince Charming and decided to simply recast the villain as the hero in an attempt not to have to scrap the whole story. For surely that was the only way he could be here.

He should have ended on the gallows for the things he'd plotted in his youth.

But then an eight year old girl had come crashing into his life, refusing to be cowed or dismissed by his irascible rudeness, and before he realized what was happening she'd begun changing him. Making him into the man she wanted him to be, perhaps needed him to be, a man she could fall in love with.

He still had moments when his darker instincts reared their heads, but he truly believed Sofia had made him better than he was ever meant to be. She'd changed him in so many ways and given him so much.

They'd married two months after she past her examination before the Masters and became a full-fledged Sorceress.

The day had been, as Amber would say, BIG!

King Rolland had declared a national holiday in celebration.

There had been a ceremony presided over by Master Ignatius of the Hall of Masters, something which still tickled Sofia given how the irritable Mage had come to be her friend. They'd said their vows before the court, with all the nobility watching, as well as visiting kings and queens and sorcerers from at least ten different kingdoms.

And then they'd partied until dawn!

Cedric would probably never forget the sight of Sofia, Amber, Ruby, Jade, and Vivian drunk and dancing while everyone else ringed the floor, all proper Princess decorum forgotten.

As they sat at breakfast the next morning, all of them a little worse for the wear, Rolland told them it was time to reveal their honeymoon surprise. The King and Queen had been adamant they wanted to take care of all the details and would only inform them where they were going the day they were set to leave.

"As you know," the King started with a look that suggested he was trying to hold back his excitement. "It's tradition for members of the royal family who don't marry outside the Kingdom to be given lands and titles. Your Aunt Tilly has the north taken care of for me and things here in the south are pretty well divided up. So I started thinking about how I could solve this little dilemma, when I was reminded by Tilly that the Ruby Isles used to be a Dukedom.

The crown subsumed the land three hundred years ago, ruling over them directly, after Duke August tried to raise a rebellion. I think it's more than time to restore things to their proper order.

What do you think Duke Cedric, Duchess Sofia?"

Cedric had nearly choked on his orange juice at that. Becoming a Prince and then a Duke, with his own land, in twenty-four hours was a bit much for anyone. But especially him, who, despite some outlandish schemes, had accepted long ago he would never be anything more than Cedric the Sorcerer until the day he died, probably alone in his tower and unmourned.

And so they'd climbed into a flying coach two hours later, to spend their honeymoon in their new home. The Ruby Isles, one of the most beautiful, magical places on earth.

A place where rainbows shone after every storm. Where the lakes and rivers ran crystal clear and white. Where the land was always emerald green and fertile. And where the people where uncommonly kind and welcoming.

He remembered how Sofia had gasped awestruck when their new home, the Ruby Fortress, came into view. An enormous gothic castle made out of blocks of marble and granite in shades of scarlet and rose.

It looked like something out of a fairytale.

Rolland had made his choice well. The Islands where secluded and private, a part of Enchancia yet not, close enough he and Sofia could split their time easily. It allowed him remain Royal Sorcerer and gave Sofia plenty of family togetherness, even as they had their own private place to retreat to.

A paradise all their own.

The years had passed quickly and slowly all at once.

Cedric remembered every moment as though it were still happening, and yet he hardly felt it as the years slipped by.

He remembered their first weeks in the castle, the two of them getting lost at least once a day as they explored every nook and cranny of the ancient place.

He could still feel the excitement he had on that day, not a week after they'd arrived, when he and Sofia discovered their new workshop.

They'd been exploring the east wing, making a game of it, 'naughty' hide and seek Sofia would name it later.

She'd found him, behind the curtain of a window in a corner room and he'd been more than looking forward to the reward she was about to claim, when her attention was caught by something.

Following her gaze he saw it too.

There was something off about the back wall of the fireplace.

The two of them stared at each other for a long moment before walking over to it, their game forgotten for now.

Touching it, Cedric found the wall solid…and yet.

"Do you have your wand?" He asked.

Sofia gave him a wicked smile and began lifting her skirts. Up and up the fabric went until he saw the slim purple stick, nestled between her thigh and her garter.

"Always," she'd purred.

Taking it out, she touched the wand to the wall. Immediately it began to shimmer and swim, and then it disappeared altogether.

A darkened passage lay before them, the winding steps leading upwards.

Speaking the Illuminate Nacht spell, Sofia tipped up on her toes to give him an excited kiss and grabbed his hand.

With the light from the spell guiding the way, they'd climbed for what seemed like forever, until they came to a door. The lock had been rusted over long ago and it crumbled to nothing with only the slightest pressure.

Opening the door they'd found a rather large circular room with windows on all sides and only a small bed for furniture.

Extinguishing the light of the spell, they'd looked out the windows to find they were in the Eastern tower, the highest point in the castle.

"This would make a wonderfully private place to work on spells and potions wouldn't it?" Sofia pointed out, sitting down on the edge of the bed, careful not to bring up too much dust.

"It would indeed make a most fitting workshop." He'd replied, suddenly less interested in spells and potions than in the possibilities presented by his wife, a bed, and the utter privacy of the top most tower of the castle. After all he did still owe her a reward.

The rest of the afternoon disappeared as they made use of the little bed and the privacy in the most ardent way.

Now it was their joint magical sanctuary. A space reserved for days spent brewing potions, practicing spells, and exploring the wonders and secrets of magic. Some he already knew and wanted to teach her, others they were discovering together.

Cedric recalled another vivid memory.

The night Miranda was born.

They'd gone back to Enchancia, knowing Sofia's time was nearing, wanting her to be with her mother and sister when it happened.

They'd been home two weeks when Cedric awoke to Sofia gripping his shoulder and crying out. Still mostly asleep, he had no idea where he was, since they were in her old room with its larger bed, and not his tower. He'd tried to hurry out for help, only to end up getting caught in the endless sheets, before tumbling head first to the floor.

Eventually he'd made it to Amber's room. Once she knew Sofia was in labor he'd been relieved of any duty other than sitting next to his wife, holding her hand, and whispering words of encouragement.

How much time passed that way he couldn't actually say, but Sofia would inform him later, and often, it had been exactly sixteen hours and forty-seven minutes.

With each passing hour Sofia's pains had gotten worse and so had Cedric's fears.

After all, for all the talk about how women gave birth every day, the truth was women died giving birth every day! From there his fears had spiraled out spectacularly, until he was a near wreck. He was mostly successful in keeping a calm face for her, but inside he was quietly losing it as he pictured horrible scenario after horrible scenario.

Apparently the midwife had seen this before and knew the only thing to do, to keep him from having a coronary right there in the middle of his child's birth, was to give him a job.

"Sit behind her, prop her back on your chest, and rub her shoulders, her back and any other place she asks you to. And don't stop until you hear your baby cry." She'd told him with a look that seemed both pitying and disdainful at the same time.

Cedric had rubbed until his fingers went numb, and then he'd rubbed some more. By the time his arms and shoulders where screaming at him to stop, Sofia was screaming her way through the last push.

Suddenly there was silence.

Then the most amazing, shrill, fabulous, ear-splitting wail he'd ever heard.

Moments later the midwife put a naked little bundle in Sofia's arms and she'd laid her body back full against his chest.

Just like that Cedric was a father, holding the two most important people in his word in trembling arms.

There had never been any question what her name would be. Sofia loved her mother with the devotion which only a child who once had nothing _but_ her mother can have.

And so the sweet little cherub with already chubby cheeks, and a downy sprinkling of hair, silver where the strands framed her face and auburn everywhere else, had been Miranda from the moment she'd drawn her first breath.

He recalled standing on the balcony of the Castle the next day, with Sofia by his side and Miranda in his arms as they'd waved to the crowds of people who'd come to catch a glimpse of the Duke, the Duchess, and newest, littlest Princess.

He remembered to the irony of how he felt on that balcony.

So many times before Sofia had come into his life, and even for some time afterward, all Cedric dreamed of was stealing the throne and becoming King.

He'd imagined people falling all over themselves to beg his forgiveness, fawning over him and adoring him. He'd always thought that adoration would heal the wounds of constant humiliation he'd suffered.

Now there he stood. The people of Enchancia cheering for him and adoring him, and all he wanted was to disappear with Sofia and Miranda to someplace quiet and secluded.

The love of the crowd was empty, utterly meaningless. It made him feel nothing when compared to the way Sofia's love filled every corner of his being. And it seemed pitifully insignificant in comparison to the hopeless devotion they both already felt for the tiny, helpless angel in his arms.

Miranda was five now, and besides the silver of her bangs, she was all her mother, precocious, kind, blindingly optimistic, frighteningly intelligent, and good!

 _And they were happy._

"Take Clover and Wormwood and go run along to Ms. Violet to change for dinner, okay little bunny rabbit." Sofia instructed, kissing Miranda on the cheek as Cedric put her down.

The little girl picked up the old rabbit and ran down the hall with the raven gliding just above her head, calling for Violet the whole way.

"Someday soon we're going to have to teach her some proper Princess manners." Cedric laughed, shaking his head as the sounds of their little girl's voice echoed back to them.

Sofia shrugged, turning so she was fully in his arms.

"Someday, but not today. I like her the way she is, wild and loud and outspoken. That's how children should be. Not stuffed into dresses that make them look twice their age and expected to act like little adults."

Cedric bent down then, taking her lips as Sofia pressed herself against him, opening her mouth in welcome.

"Is that how you were?" he asked when they parted.

Sofia nodded.

"Well then, we shall have to let her be wild and loud and outspoken. Since I can think of no better person for her be like than you, Dearest."

With that Sofia tipped on to her toes and kissed him again, the heated softness making him dizzy.

 _So happy._


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: Sofia is 25, Cedric is 41 and I don't own either of them or anyone else mentioned. I'm just letting them get it on before I start putting them through hell.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Walking into their bedroom, Sofia threw herself down widthwise on the bed, arms spread wide, bare feet dangling off the side.

"She's _finally_ asleep!" She sighed into the room, knowing Cedric was there somewhere even though she couldn't see him.

"Hmm only an hour and half tonight," Cedric laughed, emerging from their closet holding up two of his best sorcerer's robes. One deep purple velvet with silvery sparkles and the other black silk with golden suns and silver moons embroidered on it. "Which one do you think will suit best for Sunday?"

The day after tomorrow was James's wedding.

After an exhaustive assessment of his options he'd finally been persuaded to settle down. Sofia had no doubt he and Princess Maya would get on well together. But she also wondered how he could have made so…calculating a decision.

Looking at Cedric she couldn't imagine a life in which she didn't feel the slippery heat of desire every time her husband's eyes locked with hers.

Nor could she abide one where her first thought, when something wonderful happened, wasn't to find him and share her news in excited whispers. Or where his arms weren't her shelter when things went wrong.

Sofia remembered the day when she and Cedric had told her family they were in love and engaged. Most especially she remembered Amber's speech about the rules of being a princess.

"The first rule of being a Princess is that Princesses live happily ever after. And you can't live happily ever after if you don't marry your true love."

Sofia remembered being floored by Amber's matter-of-fact acceptance of her feelings for Cedric, but it seemed Amber also believed the only way to find happiness was to find your heart's desire and hold on tight to it with both hands.

Because not two years later Amber had married Prince Zandar, James's old friend from Royal Prep, in a whirlwind courtship, engagement and marriage which had all taken place in less than a year. And as far as Sofia could tell their marriage was loving, passionate, sometimes tempestuous, but always true.

James had been different.

He hadn't wanted to settle down at all. At twenty-six their father finally put his foot down and insisted James pick a wife, _any_ wife, before he led on and then disposed of enough Princesses and noble ladies that no descent father would offer his daughters up.

And as Sofia had once feared aloud, happily ever after wasn't in everyone's future.

Once Maya's father, King Nasir, realized the crown Prince of Enchancia wanted his second daughter, she and James had been betrothed quicker than you could say 'their royal highnesses'.

"I like them both," Sofia finally answered, actually imagining taking either of the options off her husband rather than putting them on. "But I'm wearing black, so if you wear the black one we'll match."

"Black it is then." Cedric nodded, laying the silk Robe out over an armchair and taking the purple one back to the closet.

Sofia looked over to her vanity where her crown sat.

She'd grown out of lavender and pink as she'd moved to the middle of her teenager years. But once Cedric had presented her with the magnificent headdress, inky dark metal inlaid with rubies and black diamonds, Sofia had decided it was time to leave being 'just' a Princess behind and embrace the sorceress she'd worked so hard to become. The sorceress she felt more authentic being.

Ivory, black, ruby red, and deep amethyst where her colors now and, though black at a wedding might seem unusual, Sofia had no doubt even Amber would approve of the dress she'd chosen for Sunday.

Black silk with a stiff bodice, an underskirt of scarlet peeking out from an overlay of black bordered by gold trim, a low square neckline adorned in rubies, pearls and diamonds, and long flowing sleeves trimmed in a luxuriant white ermine dotted with black spots.

In the dress, with her teardrop shaped crown and a long, black, gossamer veil floating behind her, she would look every bit the formidable, mysterious Sorceress Princess she was. And she knew with Cedric by her side, no matter what he wore, they would make a striking couple.

Though all that would probably be forgotten the second their precocious little imp pushed her way through mommies' skirts to get a better look at things, Miranda was a show stealer. No one was immune to her unique beauty or endless enthusiasm.

Just then the closet door closed and Cedric stalked up to her. She turned to find 'that look' in his eyes. The one that made her feel flushed and needy. The one she couldn't imagine living without.

He spread his long frame out next to her, on his side, one hand idly coming up to play with the neckline of her dress.

"You're sure the little witch is really asleep?" Sofia smiled at his special endearment for their daughter. Only a sorcerer would say something like that and mean it as a compliment.

But they both knew it was a legitimate question.

There had been many a night when they'd thought they had hours and hours to themselves only to wind up with a little princess snuggled between them. All their carefully laid plans nothing more than frustrated hopes floating away on the wind.

The joys of parenthood!

"As sure as it's possible to be," Sofia laughed softly, slipping her hand into Cedric's already open shirt, caressing her way down his chest, till her fingers brushed the top of his pants. "But you know? If there's something you want, it might be better to just… take it, before interruptions present themselves." She arched an eyebrow at him and let her tongue slip out to wet her lips. An invitation she knew he wouldn't resist.

Cedric's arms wrapped around Sofia, his lips on hers, his tongue demanding entrance, his hands pulling expertly at the clasps of her dress.

They rolled around the bed, kissing and caressing, losing a shirt here, a shift there, until they were both finally, blessedly naked.

"I love you." Cedric whispered, as they knelt, facing each other, his hands clasping hers.

Holding them to his chest he bent low to kiss her, softly, slowly, with passion that burned bright, but had no need to hurry.

Sofia shivered, knowing from the way Cedric's mouth moved over hers, this was going to be one of those amazing nights when they made love until the sun broke the horizon.

Going up on her knees, she took control of the kiss, opening his mouth, exploring his taste as she climbed onto his lap.

"Sofia," he sighed when her mouth left his long moments later to kiss his chin, and trace his jaw with her tongue.

"I love you too," she whispered back against his skin.

Sofia felt Cedric's hands release hers so one could tangle in her hair, holding her head to him, and the other could glide down her back till he was cupping her bottom, squeezing to the rhythm of her nips along the curve of his neck.

She would give him slow for now… maddeningly slow.

Sofia built the tension, pressing her breasts against his chest, rubbing the hard length of his erection between her folds, until they were both half crazed.

But still she didn't speed her hips or change the angle to take him inside her. She wanted to drive him insane. Push him to the point where he took her hips roughly in his hands and threw her down on the bed, ready to take her with a near punishing intensity.

She remembered how stunned Cedric had been when he discovered, all those years ago, that his perfect, proper Princess liked it a little rough.

Grabbing the hair at the back of his neck, Sofia wrenched Cedric's head back and bit just a little harder at the spot above the hollow of his throat.

That did it.

Without warning she found herself tossed on her back, his shadowy form looming above her in the semi-light of the room.

Pulling her up by the back of her head, Cedric crashed his mouth down on hers for a bruising kiss that lasted only moments before he let her go, her upper body falling back on the bed unceremoniously.

He was everywhere then, his mouth biting down her neck, his hands pushing her legs apart, his fingers encouraging her wetness by thrusting in and out of her relentlessly. But when she felt his mouth leave her breasts to descend lower, she wrapped her hands around his neck and her legs around his hips, and pulled with all her strength until she was the one looming over him.

She licked the seam of his lips, a look of pure wickedness in her eyes, before turning her body so she faced his rigid cock and his own face lay below her spread legs.

Sofia took him in her hands, gliding a tight fist up and down his length before lowering her head.

Cedric cried out as her mouth engulfed him, but after a few seconds, in which he bucked under her in blind pleasure, Sofia felt his fingers part her and his tongue delve between her slick folds.

The way he did this, the way he knew how every little touch, every soft swipe of his tongue or insistent thrust of his fingers would affect her, always left her breathless. From their very first time together he'd known exactly how to make her tremble with passion. But in the last seven years he'd become a master of her body, capable of making her feel what he wanted her to as slow or fast as he desired.

So it was no surprise to Sofia when she cried out around him only a short while later, utterly unable to stop the cascade of sensation from taking her over the edge.

Still shuddering from her release, Sofia was helpless to stop Cedric when he slid away, denying her the taste of him, sticky and sweet on her tongue.

She felt his hands take her hips and push her forward. Suddenly she was face down on the mattress, his hands pulling her to her knees. And then he was there, in her as deep as he could go, and she was crying out his name.

Cedric drove her to the edge of climax again. Long, hard strokes making it impossible for her to fight the inevitable, only to have him pull out just as Sofia was preparing to let go.

He ignored her curse of frustration as he turned her on her side, lying down behind her.

Lifting one of Sofia's legs over his hips, and gripping her with an arm across her chest, Cedric thrust in again.

This time Sofia screamed and threw her head back on his shoulder as he moved wildly inside her.

She loved it when he was like this, frantic, riding her with a white-hot need. It made her feel free.

She felt the arm around her chest move and suddenly he had one of her breasts in his hand.

Sofia's vision seemed to blink in and out as he played with her nipple, pinching and pulling to the rhythm of his thrusts. The slight pain heightening the pleasure so exquisitely, she was almost taken by surprise at the strength of her orgasm.

Shuddering, and gasping out Cedric's name, she felt him right there with her, calling out incoherently as he emptied himself inside her.

Out of breath and covered with sweat, Sofia should have been exhausted. But she couldn't help turning over, pressing herself to Cedric, taking his mouth.

Her passion had been somewhat muted by their wild coupling, but it wasn't extinguished. She needed more of him.

She always needed more.

They went on like that for a long time, kissing each other, tasting the other on their tongues, sliding their bodies against each other, until she felt Cedric harden again.

He'd never once _not_ lived up to the smirking promise he'd made her their first night together.

No part of him ever went soft on her!

Pushing him back on the bed Sofia climbed on top, sinking down easily on his reawakened cock.

They'd stayed slow this time, whispering to each other, holding hands as she moved them steadily to another intense release.

This time she'd gone first, letting the vice of her clenching muscles bring him along after.

Laying her upper body down over his, Sofia wrapped her arms around Cedric and laid her head on his chest, keeping him nestled inside her.

"It never gets old or ordinary does it." She laughed, kissing whatever parts of him her mouth could reach.

"There was nothing ordinary about that," Cedric laughed, but then his voice dropped, becoming deeper, more emotional, "or about the way you make me feel." His hands came up then, one stroking her hair and the other softly massaging her back.

"It's some strange magic isn't it?" Sofia wondered aloud. "Or is it egotistical to think no one else in the history of the world has ever felt the way we do?" Sofia nuzzled her nose into the hollow of his neck.

"It's not egotistical. It's the simple the truth. Don't question fate, Dearest." She could hear the drowsy, sated smile she knew was on his face.

Holding Cedric close Sofia turned her head to see the sun peaking over the horizon.

A new day beckoned outside.

Another day of their happily ever after, waiting for them to come and enjoy it.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So I couldn't pass up the opportunity to let Rolland have a voyeuristic moment, I'm a total sucker for that stuff. But this chapter sh*t gets real.**

 **Disclaimer: Sofia is 25, Cedric is 41 and I don't own them or anybody else.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Rolland**

.o~O*O~o.

Sunday dawned bright and warm.

As Rolland looked around the hall, he felt a sense of resignation he was trying to pass off as peace.

Their family were all together again and his son and heir was reciting the words which would make him a married man, ensuring Enchancia was well in hand for another generation.

All was as well with the world as he had any right to ask it to be.

Now he simply had to have faith it would all turn out for the best.

Rolland admitted to himself he had been worried, more often than not lately, it wouldn't.

After all, his first marriage had been political and, though it lasted almost a decade and brought two children into the world, he would never have described it as more than cordial. Something he now knew a marriage should never be.

And Rolland was only to aware James didn't love Maya any more than Maya loved James.

He hadn't wanted it to come to this, but James had left him little choice.

For all his son was a generally good natured person, he had a selfish streak as big, or bigger, than Amber's. It was a fact people tended to ignore because James was so often affable and fun to be around.

With women though, that selfishness exposed itself in the worst way.

The boy didn't seem to understand he couldn't simply do what he wanted to with a woman and then _not_ marry her.

They had come within a hair's breadth of war with Freisenburg over Hildegard's disappointed hopes.

Rolland had no doubt Hildegard went willingly to James's bed, or that she hadn't asked for any assurances beforehand, assuming no man could have her and then leave her.

Yet still, that James would let Hildegard believe what she wanted, just to sleep with her, and then shrug his shoulders and say oops. It showed a side of his son he hadn't liked seeing. And it had forced him to confront James and demand he marry. One more slip up like that and they could all pay for his son's inability to keep it in his pants around beautiful, highborn women.

So here they were.

Not wishing to ruin his peace of mind by thinking too much on the mistake that might be beginning right now, Rolland looked around the room.

His eyes settled on Amber.

Though he loved her immensely, Rolland was under no pretense about his eldest daughter's calculating nature. So he'd been shocked when she came to him one evening, with Prince Zandar trailing just behind her, and informed him she was getting married… just like that.

He always assumed Amber would weigh her options in painstaking detail, basing her decision on things like amount of wealth, relative good looks, and how soon she could expect to be queen. But Amber had surprised him.

She'd let her heart make the decision.

As if out of the blue, Amber had looked at an old friend anew, and made him look at her anew. And instantly, all those years of friendship became something more.

Rolland was proud of her, and her choice, in a way he wasn't sure he could ever put into words. And the knowledge that Amber loved her husband and was loved in return, made him feel as though a weight was lifted from his shoulders.

Next to Amber sat Sofia.

And again Rolland marveled at where his daughters had chosen to love.

Never would he have believed, on the day he met Cedric - a nineteen year old so crushed under the weight of his doubts and insecurities he could barely speak three words to his king- that the younger man would someday be his son.

In truth, Rolland hadn't thought he would even remain Royal Sorcerer for long.

But then he married Miranda and Sofia had come to live in the castle.

At first he hadn't given much thought to Sofia's interest in Cedric. He knew Sofia often felt like an outsider, even if, to his eyes, she never once appeared out of her depth. But it made perfect sense his perceptive new daughter would seek out the other person in her vicinity who was so obviously an outsider looking in.

His Royal Sorcerer seemed as short-tempered and impatient with children though, as he was inept at magic.

Rolland could only imagine Cedric would eventually do something to make Sofia understand she was an unwelcome annoyance. Then, after some tears and hurt feelings, Rolland assumed she would go on to devote herself to someone more grateful for her attention.

He'd underestimated Sofia's tenacity though, as apparently had Cedric.

Because instead of taking the hint, or taking it personally, she persisted in her attempts to make him a friend.

Climbing innumerable steps almost every day to visit his tower, taking his part whenever anyone said anything even slightly derogatory about him, and doing sweet things to show Cedric she thought he was special.

And eventually all her hard work paid off.

As they spent time together, Cedric seemed to lose some of his anti-socialness and a lot of his ineptitude, becoming a better Sorcerer and maybe even a better person.

For many years, Rolland was happy to let his youngest daughter play at being the Sorcerer's Apprentice, especially if it made her happy and Cedric less likely to bungle things.

But around Sofia's thirteenth birthday Rolland began to question how much time they spent together.

With his daughters only a year apart, he had the luxury of getting most of the stages of adolescence and teenager-hood out of the way all at once. So when Amber began noticing boys and flirting with them, Rolland expected Sofia to follow not far behind.

She never did.

She'd already been Cedric's apprentice, in the serious sense, for almost three years and she seemed interested in nothing more than flying derby, magic , and Cedric, and not in that order.

While Amber mooned over the young Princes at Royal Prep, crushing on one or another depending on her mood, talking dreamily about them and getting stars in her eyes when she saw them, Sofia only got dreamy when she talked about her magic lessons, and only got starry eyed when she looked at Cedric.

"It's just a crush. It's normal for girls her age to fancy older men." Miranda laughed, dismissing his concerns. "Sofia is too smart and mature already to have any interest in thirteen year old boys. One day they'll catch up to her and she'll start to appreciate them."

Rolland had watched Cedric and Sofia closely for some time after that. Still uneasy, but satisfied the stronger emotions were entirely on his daughter's side.

Cedric obviously enjoyed teaching her and valued her friendship above almost all else, but Rolland didn't sense anything impure about the man's regard for his teenage daughter.

In fact, the more he watched them, the more certain he became Cedric wasn't noticing the years slipping by like everyone else. The sorcerer acted as if it hadn't dawned on him Sofia wasn't eight anymore.

But even oblivious sorcerers can't ignore the passage of time forever.

Two years later Sofia bloomed spectacularly and became, without doubt, the fairest rose in all the field.

No one could possibly remain blind to the fact she'd left childhood behind her.

He'd thought again about severing their relationship, but it was obvious by then magic was no mere hobby for Sofia. She was devoted to it, and to her master, and Cedric was a surprisingly a skilled teacher.

He remembered the magic show he'd asked Cedric to perform for Emperor Quon and Empress Lin-Lin on one of their longer visits.

Sofia had been sixteen at the time. She and Cedric had entered the throne room side by side, but after only a few tricks, which they performed together, Cedric laid down his wand and walked off.

Taking a shadowy spot in a corner of the throne room, he let Sofia spend the next hour making them all marvel at what she was able to do.

Rolland always wondered if that night had been a coincidence or if Cedric had done it purposefully. Wanting him to see how far Sofia had come, how gifted she was, so he would continue to allow their odd relationship.

Either way it was the end of his hopes of steering Sofia in a different direction.

And the beginning of understanding what lay between them.

He would never forget the way Cedric stared at her from that dark corner, as though he _wanted_ to turn away but couldn't. Or the way Sofia looked at him after every trick, uncaring what anybody but her master thought of her success.

The utter longing each of them betrayed convinced Rolland they were both suffering in silence. Each only knowing how they felt, but not realizing the other felt the same way.

So when they came to him, not even twenty-four hours after Sofia's eighteenth birthday, announcing their engagement, he couldn't say he was in anyway shocked.

Cedric and Sofia's strange, ever evolving relationship had perhaps thrown some for a loop.

But in the end, Rolland remained happy that she too had married for love. Grand love if he was honest.

And so as James and Maya kissed, hesitantly, Rolland wasn't sure if he should just be happy two of his children had fulfilled his dreams for them, or angry at himself for not being able to help his third child understand the gift of real love.

Standing along with the rest of the crowd, Rolland applauded the new couple, deciding to concentrate on the celebration at hand.

Everything else was out of his hands now anyway.

The afternoon melted into night as everyone ate, danced, and made thoroughly merry, even the newlyweds.

As the wine flowed, the younger party goers got wilder and freer.

Rolland was about to suggest to Miranda, and to King Nasir and Queen Anya, that they retire to a quieter setting, when the side door to the ballroom opened.

The Captain of the Palace guard was at his shoulder, in a few long strides.

"Your Majesty, I need you and the rest of the royal family to come with me." The man spoke with the calm tone and composed demeanor of a soldier, but Rolland knew it had to be serious if he wanted the entire family to leave the party.

"What's going on?"

"With respect your Majesty, we can discuss that after everyone is safe. You must hurry, time is of the essence. Once you're away, we'll disband the party. But there will be chaos. I need you out first."

There were five tense minutes while the younger members of the family were discretely rounded up. But eventually everyone was standing in the small anti-room off the side of the ballroom.

"Now what's going on?" Rolland demanded.

"Your Majesty the castle is under attack. We have reason to believe the entire Kingdom is under attack."

Rolland looked at his Captain as if the man had grown a second head.

"That's not possible. Enchancia isn't a small place. How could the Kingdom be under attack and invaders at our door without anyone noticing?"

"Look outside your Majesty."

Going to the window Rolland gasped. Dunwitty village was on fire and men in heavy mail, coated with blood, were pouring over the open bridge into the castle, gored weapons in hand.

Rolland caught sight of a Knight just under the drawbridge and he felt an unimaginable rage well up in him.

The man was wearing the Royal Crest of Rudistan.

"Magnus," Rolland spit the name as if it was bile in his mouth.

"Yes, your Majesty." The captain said. "We must go. They're in the castle now!"

"And where are the castle guards?" Rolland asked, feeling as though this must all be some surreal dream brought on by too much wine.

"There fighting the invaders." The Captain answered, leaving 'and losing' unspoken. "We have a man on every door from here to the secret passage that leads out of the castle. Once we get you out horses will be waiting. If we can get you to the border with Wei-ling you'll be safe."

"NO!"

Everyone turned and looked at Cedric in surprise.

"Your Majesty, it's two days on horseback to Wei-Ling. Every second we're out there we'll all be in grave danger.

"Do you have a better idea? Perhaps their Majesties should simply stay and be slaughtered so you won't be frightened or uncomfortable!" The Captain retorted disgustedly.

If Cedric cared he'd been insulted he didn't show it.

"I do have a better idea. There's a portrait in my workshop, it's enchanted. We can use it to open a portal to Mystic Meadows. From there, we'll have four sorcerers. That's enough power to teleport us all anywhere on Earth. And it means we'll be away from danger within the hour."

It wasn't a bad plan, but….

"How do you know something hasn't happened to your parents, Cedric? If the entire Kingdom is under attack…?"

Cedric shook his head confidently.

"Even if the entire Kingdom is under siege, no one is idiot enough to attack a community filled with Sorcerers. That's a death sentence.

Rolland couldn't argue with Cedric's logic.

"Captain, your men will escort us to the _PRINCE'S_ workshop." Rolland made sure to emphasize the enormity of the gap between the Captain's rank and Cedric's so there would be no more arguing and no more insubordination.

The Captain didn't look happy about it, but he and his men took them out into the halls.

Once they were away from the ballroom, the sounds of battle couldn't be drowned out. Clashing steal, grunts of effort, and screams of pain filled the air, even as the corridors they made their way through were mostly deserted. No one, it seemed, was interested in the back halls that led to Cedric's tower.

Along the way they found a few of the castle staff hiding, Chef Andre and some of his people along with his daughter Gwen. Suzette and Violet they found under a table holding each other and trying to hush the sounds of their tears.

By the time they rounded the final corridor they were a group far too large for four guards to defend.

Which was why the Captain looked at him with a galled expression when they came across a group of invaders. The men hadn't been fighting, but must have broken off from the others to loot the empty corridors of their riches.

When they saw the guards and the royal family though, they had no choice. Brandishing weapons the intruders rushed at them.

"Go up, quickly!" The Captain said to him, before signaling his men and engaging the enemy.

Rolland hurried everyone through the archway below the endless stairs which would take them to Cedric's workshop.

The King knew his guards wouldn't defeat the other men. They had only bought time…with their blood.

Cedric came up behind him now, holding the key which would admit them to his private sanctuary.

When they finally reached the top, Cedric opened the door and spoke a spell that caused the room to light. Then he hurried over to the portrait, pulling it down from the wall.

A few more words and the picture of his parents swirled while the frame grew. When it stopped the much larger frame now looked on a bewildered Goodwin and Winifred sitting in their nightclothes, having tea in their living room.

Cedric motioned the King through first.

One by one they began pouring through the portal into Goodwin's living room, to the shock of the former Royal Sorcerer.

"I'm sorry to barge in like this, but we have an emergency and Cedric thought you could be of help." Rolland began.

He opened his mouth to explain more but suddenly there was a scream from the other side of the portrait.

Turning he saw Suzette, Amber's maid, trip on a lose stone just outside the door to Cedric's workshop.

Sofia was halfway through, a frightened, tearful Miranda in her arms, but at the sound of Suzette's cry, she also turned.

Running back for the girl, Sofia used her free hand to help the maid up.

The girl was nearly back on her feet when something behind her caught her attention and she screamed again.

Sofia saw it too, and the color drained from her face.

"Sofia, hurry!" Cedric screamed, running to help her.

Hauling Suzette to her feet, Cedric and Sofia all but dragged her to the portal.

As Suzette went through, the invaders gained the landing outside the workshop.

Rolland watched in paralyzed horror as they rushed through the door.

Later, Rolland would realize it had all happened in the space of just a few seconds. But, as he watched, it seemed as if the next moments happened in a kind of perversely slowed motion.

Seeing there was no more time, Sofia thrust Miranda into Cedric's arms.

Taken by surprise, Cedric struggled to keep their daughter from falling, and Sofia used his distraction to shove him through the portrait.

Making a mad grab for a spare wand on the table, Sofia screamed unintelligible words just as one of them caught her around the wrist and another walked up to the portal. She managed to break free of his hold long enough to point the wand at the portrait.

"SOFIA, NOOOO! SOFIAAA!"

Rolland heard Cedric screaming as the portal became nothing more than a picture again.

Younger Cedric stared back from his frame with lifeless eyes as it dawned on them Sofia had sacrificed herself to keep them all safe.

"Sofia!"

It was Cedric again, confusion written on his face as he touched the portrait, trying to make sense of the fact she was still on the other side of it.

After a few long moments, confusion became something else. Rolland had seen this new look only a few times before in his life: A man about to do something fatal, without even caring.

Suddenly finding his legs, Rolland pushed his way to Cedric, grabbing the wand out of his hand and breaking it in two.

"What the HELL are you doing!" His son rounded on him. "She's still in the castle! We have to go back!"

"Magnus's soldiers took her, Cedric." Rolland looked back, counting how many men they had who could fight. "Even if you conjured us weapons, there's only six of us who know how to use them, and we have no idea where they're taking her. If we go back we die, and Sofia will still be Magnus's prisoner."

Cedric looked at him darkly then, disbelieving.

"You have three sorcerers here. We don't need fighting men!" Cedric spit, his desperation turning to fury.

"We'll get her back Cedric. But jumping back through the portal into a castle crawling with enemies is suicide. You might be a sorcerer but I'm willing to bet an arrow to the back will still kill you. These men just took Enchancia Castle by slaughtering its occupants. They aren't going to be sticklers for chivalry."

"Fine, stay, I'll go back alone."

"You WILL stay here! That's an order Cedric, from your king."

"You can't be serious! NOT A HAIR ON HER HEAD! That's what you said. You made me promise I would never let her be harmed in any way, and you're going to abandon her to Magnus?" Cedric was screaming now, utterly unable to control the rage coursing through him.

From behind them they heard the sounds of Miranda whimpering, calling for her mother."

"I'm not abandoning her. We will get to safety, put together a force to rescue Sofia and retake the castle. But that can't happen tonight." Rolland saw that nothing was getting through. "I love my daughter but I can't risk the lives of the people here and run headlong into slaughter for one person. And you should think of your own daughter. What would Miranda do if you died?"

Once the words were out of his mouth, Rolland realized how grave a mistake they were.

"I _am_ thinking of my daughter. She needs her mother! And so do I!"

Rolland saw it, Goodwin's wand, lying on the coffee table, just before Cedric made his move.

Grabbing the younger man Rolland used all his strength to try and restrain him, but if it hadn't been for James and Nasir he might not have been able to. For all Cedric's lankiness, he was stronger than he looked, and he was lit from within by the fire of his love for Sofia.

Seeing Zandar pick up a metal poker by the fireplace, Rolland nodded, hating himself for what he was about to allow.

The butt of the poker smashed across the back of Cedric's head and suddenly he collapsed in a heap.

"Cedi darling!" Winifred, who still stood by the couch, rushed over to her unconscious son. Taking his head in her lap, she instructed James, in the coldest voice Rolland had ever heard, to fetch the white healing wand from the kitchen.

Turning to Goodwin, Rolland cast his eyes down at the floor, shamed.

I'm sorry Master Goodwin, for…everything tonight, but as you heard, Enchancia is under attack. We need to get away. Can you and Winifred help us?"

Goodwin looked at his son and an expression of deep sorrow crossed his face, before the old man squared his shoulders.

"What do you need of me?"

"We need you to teleport us to The Highlands," Tilly's small frame emerged from the sea of people.

Rolland shook his head.

"We should go to Wei-ling." He said, dismissing Tilly's words and turning back to Goodwin.

"If you leave Enchancia you've as good as handed it to Magnus little brother. The Highlands are protected by mountains, the terrain is treacherous at best for an unfamiliar army, and most of all my people are loyal. They'll fight to their dying breath.

With the help of King Nasir and Prince Zandar's armies, and the expertise of three sorcerers we'll have Magnus's head rotting on a pike and Sofia back safe within the week.

"Master Goodwin can you teleport us to GlenBonnie Castle?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: Sofia is 25, Cedric is 41, and I don't own either of them, or anyone else.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

"SOFIA, NOOOO!"

The portal closed, as she'd meant it to.

They were safe.

Sofia only hoped Cedric would be able to forgive her. That he would understand why she did it. That he would know it was her choice, not his fault.

Even now, as the realization of just how bad things could go for her sunk in, she would do it all over again. How could she live with herself if she'd stepped through the portrait and let any of her friends or family be left behind instead.

"Well, well, well, what do have here?"

She was standing on the landing now, the soldier who'd grabbed her, still holding her by the wrist with a force that would leave bruises.

Sofia gave one longing look at the wand she'd been holding. It lay on the workshop floor now, where it had been flung so she couldn't use it against her captors. If only she could reach it!

They all surrounded her now, nine of them, big, brutal looking, and blood thirsty.

They might have been looting in the halls before, but they had killed tonight. Many more than the just four guards who'd sacrificed themselves for her family.

As they looked her up and down, she saw the inevitable result of all that unchecked bloodlust, and it made her truly fearful for the first time.

"She must be someone special." Another of them said.

His hand came out. Calloused, dirty fingers touched her roughly from the swell of her breasts, just above the neckline of her gown, all the way to her waist.

Sofia tried to move away, but the one holding her made it impossible to escape the wandering hands of the others.

"She's wearing more money than any of us have ever dreamed of." A third chimed in.

She saw them all, looking at the jewels on her neckline, and then letting their gaze move to her chest, greed transforming into lust. She knew if she didn't speak now she might never leave the landing.

"I am Princess Sofia, Duchess of the Ruby Isles, and I demand you take me to King Magnus at once!"

Sofia had never spoken to anyone as though she were better than them, but she tried to mimic Amber at her haughtiest now, hoping her rank might keep them from hurting her…or worse.

"I don't think you're in any position to be demanding anything, little pretty." The man holding her said, licking his lips.

Before he could say or do more, another man came up the stairs.

"Keep your hands off her." He said, authority ringing in his voice. "She's King Rolland's daughter. If we take her to Magnus, he'll reward us. You'll end up with far more than you'd get playing with her till you rip her to pieces."

His words made Sofia shudder. But she was gladder than she cared to say when the others seemed to accept his words and started hauling her out of the tower.

They walked down long corridors, some empty, others not.

Sofia tried not to look to closely when they rounded a hall and entered a corridor off the kitchen. She didn't want to know whose bodies lay mangled and mutilated, bleeding out onto the floor. And she knew if she let herself look she'd know each and every one of them. The sight of their bodies, cut down like slabs of meat, would burn themselves into her mind. Memories of them from her childhood would be replaced with the haunting visions of their bluish gray faces and lifeless eyes.

They passed the ballroom next.

Sofia saw it was ringed with guards, the wedding guests now hostages.

She heard frightened cries and indignant demands for release echoing into the hall. Though she was relieved there wasn't more death here, she couldn't help the anger that lit inside her. They were all alive. They were alive and they didn't have the sense to be grateful for it.

She had no doubt they would all be on their way homes soon, ransomed for ridiculous sums of money which would appear as if out of nowhere. Their wealth and station providing them safety from any true harm.

"One more for us, eh?" One of the guards laughed, moving aside, thinking she was going to be put with the rest.

"Sorry mate. This one is worth more than all the others put together! She's going straight to Magnus. Better luck next time." The leader of her captors said, smiling rapaciously.

Two more minutes and they were at the doors of the throne room.

The guards there, all wearing blood spattered mail and surcoats with Magnus's colors, lowered their swords to deny them entrance.

"The ballroom's for hostages." One of them said, dismissively.

"The ballroom's secondary hostages. This one's a member of the Enchancian Royal Family. Magnus will want to know she's been taken."

Sofia watched the guard grimace, before lowering his sword and opening the door.

"I said I wasn't to be distur…." Magnus's blustering voice died mid-sentence when he saw her.

Sofia had to stifle the urge to scream, watching that pompous, murdering bastard sitting on her father's throne.

She noticed, almost off handedly as she was dragged to the foot of the throne's steps, all the other chairs besides the king's had been thrown onto the floor. Amber's lay broken in three pieces, and Cedric's was nothing more than splinters.

"Princess Sofia?" Magnus rose from her father's chair and waddled down the steps to stand in front of her.

The years hadn't been kind to him. What had been girth a decade ago was now an unimaginable amount of bulge. Magnus had become so obese his stubby little legs were apparently no longer able to support him on their own, forcing him to walk with an ornate, gem encrusted cane.

Finally he was down the stairs and towering in front of her, his stinking breath far too close to her face as he leaned down precariously to inspect her.

Noticing she was still being physically restrained by the men who'd brought her in, his enormous face clouded over with anger.

"Let her go, you worthless pig. How dare you touch a Princess in that manner! Have you no respect for your betters?" Magnus roared, turning red from the effort.

"But sire, we found her. The others escaped but we were able to capture her!" Their leader pleaded, his voice suddenly far less authoritative.

She watched Magnus mull that over, before he motioned behind him.

Sofia turned, her eyes going wide with shock, as two familiar figures stalked out of the shadows.

"Graylock, make yourself useful and conjure a reward for these gentlemen. Something appropriate for the…prize they've just brought me.

As for you Elliot, go up to the West tower and see if you can make use of anything in the sorcerer's workshop."

Elliot smiled like a kid told to help himself to a candy store and Sofia saw red.

"Don't you dare step one foot in there!" The words were out of her mouth before she even realized she meant to speak.

Elliot stopped short, but only long enough to throw her a malevolent smirk. As though her indignation only made what he was about to do that much more enjoyable.

"Ahh, I'd almost forgotten, it's yours too isn't it, Princess." Magnus looked amused by that.

Sofia stared back defiantly, which seemed to amuse him more because he started to laugh.

"I had forgotten you married what passed for a Royal Sorcerer here in Enchancia. What was it you used to call him Graylock…Card Trick?" Magnus laughed some more, his fat belly rolling as he threw back his shoulders like he'd never heard anything so funny.

But when his mirth finally ran out and he settled a deeply unsettling gaze on her, she almost wished he would go back to laughing.

"Such beauty,"

Magnus's voice dropped, as meaty fingers came up. He grabbed a lock of hair from beneath her veil, letting it run through his fingers till he was grasping just the ends.

The sight made Sofia shudder in disgust, even as she was forced to move closer to him or risk having her hair ripped out.

Bringing her hair to his nose, he took a long inhalation, savoring the scent, before exhaling on a groan of appreciation.

"I remember you as puff of purple pastel, all big eyes and pert innocent opinions. But you're all grown up now aren't you?" His eyes swept over her with approval. "I hadn't thought to find such exquisite beauty. And all of it wasted on a bungling clod. Even if your father had lost his kingdom for no other reason than that, it would be too good a punishment for him. To sacrifice a woman of your caliber to the inept groping's of a blundering fool twice your age…."

"DON'T talk about my husband or my father that way!" Sofia interrupted, pushed past caution. "Cedric is an amazing sorcerer and an amazing man. And my father is the greatest King Enchancia has ever had! You aren't half the man either of them is! And when they come for me, it's you who'll end up without a kingdom or a HEAD!"

There was no amusement in Magnus's expression now.

Instead he leveled her with a look so frightening Sofia had to stifle the urge to shrink back from him.

"Let the cowards come and we'll see, Princess. I have no reason to fear any man now, but especially not men who'd abandon a woman to save their own skins."

Sofia wanted to argue, but her fear of him was suddenly too great.

"You're still young. I'll excuse your disrespectful words on that count." He continued threateningly, before his face became lustful once more. "I'll wager no one's touched you but that skinny oaf. Don't worry sweet Princess. You'll forget all about him... in time."

Magnus, let her hair drop then, and Sofia felt a moment of relief. Until she realized he meant to grab something besides her hair.

"Don't touch me again!" Sofia breathed. Afraid or not, she couldn't bear his hands on her again.

"I've just taken your Kingdom by force. It's mine now, and that means so are you! Do you understand me?

You belong to me now, Sofia.

To do with what I please.

So I better never hear you order me to do or not do anything again! Otherwise you won't find me as forgiving as I have been tonight.

I'm sure you have no problem bossing around that sniveling coward you claim is so _amazing_. But real men aren't cowed by little girls who don't know when to hold their tongues.

I can assure you I have more important things to attend to right now than your insolence.

Killing half of Enchancia isn't going to endear me to the people who remain. And it grows tiring putting down rebellion after rebellion.

But… perhaps you can be of use to me in that regard.

If I were to have the Kingdom's most beloved Princess by my side, on my arm…if you're seen accept me, so will they. And you will accept me Sofia, or things will go very bad for you."

Sofia felt panic rise up in her.

She believed with every ounce of her being her family wouldn't abandon her. _Cedric_ wouldn't abandon her. He'd promised her long ago he would never let anything part them.

He was coming.

She only needed to buy time. She just needed to keep Magnus's hands off her for a few days at most and this would all be over.

"You won't touch me again," her voice low but defiant.

Magnus's nostrils flared at that, and there was rage in his eyes.

Grabbing her arm he hauled her against him, his face coming down till it was mere centimeters from her.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't teach you your new place right here on the throne room floor, you obstinate little witch!"

Sofia jutted out her chin in defiance and met his gaze head on.

"Because I'm pregnant."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I took liberties with Tilly's home. She's in a much bigger property in this story!**

 **Also I think I really enjoy writing Cedric and Baileywick. The chapter wasn't supposed to start this way, but they decided they were going to have a 'moment' and there wasn't much I could do about it.**

 **Disclaimer: Sofia is 25 and Cedric is 41. I don't own either of them.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric groaned, feeling as though every part of his body was screaming at him in rebellion, but no part more than his head.

Cracking one of his eyes open, he it shut again immediately. The brightness of the room made his head hurt to the point he thought he might vomit.

"I'll close the curtain," A familiar yet unexpected voice informed him quietly.

A moment later Cedric heard the scraping sound of the curtains being moved on their runner and winced.

When he cracked his eyes open again, the room was blessedly dim. Just enough light remained for him to see the form of Baileywick walking back to the chair beside his bed.

"What happened? I feel as though I've had a boulder dropped on top of me."

Cedric touched the back of his head gingerly and attempted to sit up slowly.

"Prince Zandar, cold cocked you. Actually that's perhaps too gentle a term. I'm sure it was only his intent to knock you out, but if your mother hadn't been there, there might have been unintended consequences. He hit you pretty hard."

"And you're here to what…finish the job?" Cedric leveled the steward with the best sneer he could manage.

Baileywick ignored his provocation and instead turned to the nightstand, picking up a tray and placing it on Cedric's lap. The smell was initially off putting, but then his stomach rumbled as though it were a bottomless chasm and he thought better of refusing the food.

"Officially I'm here to relieve Princess Amber of her shift." Baileywick said matter-of-factly.

"Shift? How long have I been out?" Cedric had a piece of bread halfway to his mouth.

"Three days."

The bread dropped back to the plate.

"Finnegan's Fungus!" Cedric cursed, the exertion making him dizzy.

"Sit back and eat something Cedric. I'll tell you whatever you want to know, but only if you eat."

Baileywick's sudden concern for his health was deeply unnerving, and since Cedric felt he was drowning in a sea of twisting turmoil, it was easier to concentrate on the longstanding enmity between the steward and himself.

"Why? Have you poisoned it?"

Baileywick only sighed at that.

"It's time for us to bury the hatchet."

Cedric couldn't help the eyebrow that arched into his hairline.

"As I recall I never raised the hatchet. You're the one who can't stand me remember. I don't dislike you anymore than I dislike everyone else."

"How kind of you." Baileywick replied dryly, before becoming serious again.

"I…I had no right. I thought you were going to hurt her, but I should have known… _she_ would never pick someone who wasn't worthy of her.

I should have apologized, in earnest, a long time ago, but seeing you trying to fight off three men to get to her side. I felt shame for everything I said to you and everything I thought about you all those years ago."

The way the steward refused to say Sofia's name made Cedric's gut twist. Three days, and they were…he didn't know where. But he knew where she was, back at the castle, alone, the prisoner of a usurping, murdering, madman.

Baileywick might have thought his struggle at Mystic Meadows praiseworthy but Cedric couldn't agree.

How could he have let Rolland take his wand?

How had he allowed himself to be overpowered?

He was a fucking Sorcerer! The woman who was his very life, needed him more than _anyone_ had ever needed him and instead of using his magic to save her, he'd allowed himself to be overpowered and subdued.

"Well if I'd known all I needed to do to win your vaunted approval was to have the back of my head cracked open, we could have been done with this years ago." Cedric couldn't keep the self-loathing from his voice.

Still, the two men looked at each other and an acknowledgement passed between them.

"Where are we?" Cedric asked, knowing he couldn't put off reality any longer.

"GlenBonnie Castle,"

"We're still in Enchancia?" Cedric asked, incredulously.

"Duchess Matilda convinced the King leaving would mean ceding defeat to Magnus."

Cedric nodded. Matilda was one of the few people he had real respect for. People underestimated her because of her tiny stature, and her strange nature, but she had a keener mind than almost anybody else he'd met.

"You're parents are here as well. King Rolland insisted they come.

King Nasir and Prince Zandar have returned to their countries to raise armies. They should be ready within another day or so to bring them here, with your parents help."

Cedric nodded, looking at Baileywick with naked pain now.

"Is there any news of Sofia?" His words were barely a whisper, but he knew the other man had heard him, when Baileywick's face fell.

"Yes.

It's worse than we thought. Everything from the border with Rudistan to the castle is ash. Magnus's men killed everyone and scorched the land. Yesterday, he used magic to make himself appear throughout the kingdom.

He claims the throne of Enchancia by right of conquest. He exhorted those still alive to accept his rule so there would be no more bloodshed.

Then he had Sofia brought out. He claimed she had accepted his right to rule and therefore so should we all. Then he…claimed her by right of conquest too. "

The pain, the dizziness, the weakness all receded before a cloud of black rage so all-consuming Cedric could feel nothing but the seething hate coursing through him.

The man claimed his wife! That murdering psychotic claimed his wife! Sofia, the light that lit his world, Magnus claimed her. As though she were a horse or a shoe or _thing_ he could own.

What had he done to her? Had he touched her already? Was he hurting her even now?

Visions of Sofia, screaming in pain, crying out to him, begging him to help her filled his mind. Images of her lying broken and bruised, tore at his soul.

Then his mind filled with other images.

Tearing Magnus limb from limb with his bare hands, watching the life drain from his eyes as his blood stained the floor.

He'd feed the raping bastard his own cock and rip his bowels out to use as the noose that hanged him.

"Cedric calm down." Baileywick's voice cut into his black imaginings, becoming more terrified with each word. "Cedric please, you have to calm down!"

It was only then Cedric realized the room was shaking. Things falling, furniture toppling and smashing to bits, the windows giving a sick rattle as though they might shatter at any moment.

But it took Baileywick reaching out tentatively, touching his arm, to make Cedric realize he was the cause of the sudden earthquake which had taken the room.

And just like that he snapped back to himself, shocked and sick, and feeling as though his heart would simply implode from the pain.

Sofia!

He had to get to her. He had to bring her back. Her father could be damned. The promises he'd made Rolland were words in the wind.

But he'd promised her! He'd sworn to Sofia, as he held her in the sacred space of their bed, he would never let anyone part them.

"Like the dark of Hell in the night." He whispered into the expanse of the room, looking at the destruction his anger had somehow wrought.

"Are you alright?" Baileywick looked as though he'd just seen a demon.

"I won't be alright until she's safe."

The steward nodded.

"Where is my daughter?" Cedric asked, his heart constricting yet again, remembering he'd been unconscious for days.

His poor little witch. She'd seen her mother taken prisoner and her father practically murdered by their family all in the same night. And he'd waited all this time to even ask about her. What kind of father was he?

The thought distressed him. He felt deep shame, but also a soul deep longing for Sofia. He'd been right three nights ago when he told Rolland his daughter needed her mother.

"She's alright. She's with your mother, the Queen, and Princess Amber. But she's been asking about your every five minutes for three days."

Cedric began shoving food in his mouth with purpose.

He needed to go to his child. He didn't want her to see him like this, and that meant he had to have enough strength to stand up.

When he'd finished his meal, he asked Baileywick to find him some clothes. Hating to need the man, but in a strange place, where he had no idea what was where, he had no choice.

Baileywick nodded, picking his way through the wreckage of the room to a splintered overturned chest.

Gingerly separating the broken pieces of wood, he pulled out Cedric's pants, shirt and vest from the wedding, along with his shoes.

"You're robe was beyond saving," the steward looked abashed before continuing, "too much blood. But the rest of your clothes just needed laundering. I'll let you change in privacy, but if you need me I'll be just outside the door.

When you're ready I'll take you to Miranda."

Fifteen dizzying minutes later, Cedric was dressed.

Walking out of the room Cedric realized how vast Tilly's castle was. It was ancient, probably older than the Ruby Fortress by centuries. Old enough not to have a 'Residence' and so he had to follow Baileywick down several long corridors before they came to her family room.

Opening the door, he saw his mother, the Queen and Amber all dancing in a circle around Miranda. She was teaching them one of the silly songs Sofia had made up to make her laugh when she was scared. It broke his heart all over again.

Nothing would be right till she was with them again.

"Bunny Rabbit," Cedric called to her, using Sofia's favorite endearment.

"DADDY!" Miranda ran under Amber's arm and launched herself at him.

Kneeling down he let her smash into him full force, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her little face over and over again.

"I'm here little witch. I'm here."

She kissed him back before bursting into tears and burying her face in his neck.

"Daddy where have you been? Where's mommy. No one will tell me where mommy is, or Clover or Wormwood! No one will tell me anything! I want my mommy. I want you and mommy!"

"I'm here little one and Clover and Wormwood are safe on the isle. Remember we didn't bring them? Clover is probably eating his way through the carrot patch and wormwood is no doubt someplace dark and high, looking for something bad to do." He petted her hair as he spoke, holding her tight.

"And mommy?" She looked up at him then, with wide, pleading blue eyes. Sofia's eyes.

"Mommy is at Papa Rolland's castle. She couldn't come here with us. But we're going to go and get her very soon. I promise."

"Are you going to get her?" she asked, fear lacing her voice.

"I am. I'm going to bring mommy here to be with you." Cedric smiled at her hoping it would reassure her. So he was utterly taken aback when she began screaming instead.

"NO! NO YOU CAN'T GO! NO DADDY! I WON'T LET YOU LEAVE ME AGAIN!" The rest became incoherent sobs as she clutched at him, her tiny fingers scratching at his neck in her attempt to overpower him, to make him stay.

Cedric just held his little girl as she cried.

Looking up he saw the Queen, Amber, and his mother all had broken expressions on their faces.

When Miranda finally stopped crying Cedric tried to make her understand in the only way he knew she would.

"I have to go, Miranda. I'm mommies Prince Charming remember?" Miranda looked at him as though she wanted to argue but she couldn't.

"I remember. That's why mommy gets to kiss you special, right?"

Cedric tried to smile at her beautiful innocence, but his heart was twisting again, painful knots bringing tears to the corner of his eyes.

"That's why mommy gets to kiss me special. So you see I have to go, because that's the way the story goes. The Princess falls in love with her Prince Charming and when someone bad tries to separate them, Prince Charming has to go rescue her. That way they can live happily ever after."

After a long moment, Miranda nodded her head, seeming to accept his explanation even if he could tell she still didn't like it.

"You promise you'll bring mommy back so we can all live happily ever after?" She asked laying her head back on his shoulder.

"Prince's honor."


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So as I was writing, I realized I was making Sofia far too much of a wilting, helpless flower. When we all know she's not. She's a self-rescuing princess if ever there was one! So I had to remedy that.**

 **Also: Villain monologue ahead!**

 **Disclaimer: Sofia is 25, Cedric is 41 and I don't own them or anyone else.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Sofia had no idea how long she'd been pacing the length of her room, but she couldn't seem to stop. Every time she stopped her fears and anxieties would start to overwhelm her.

At least when she walked she was able to concentrate on one thing at a time.

So, exhausted, moving on shaking legs, she paced.

It had been three days and still nothing.

She didn't know where her family had gone, or even if they were safe.

Sofia feared for all of them, but it was images of Cedric and Miranda that stole her sleep.

She saw her darling girl being slaughtered.

Sofia saw her husband, mad with grief and anger, descending into the pit of his own demons. She heard him curse her for leaving him as he was swallowed by his own darkness.

Had Cedric seen her on that balcony? He wouldn't believe, he _couldn't_ believe she'd accepted Magnus.

Magnus.

Putting her hands on her stomach, Sofia felt the fear well up in her again.

Telling him about her pregnancy had been a gamble completely based on the belief she wouldn't be here for long. And in that regard it had been successful.

She remembered how the disgusting lecher had moved back from her repulsed when she'd told him, turning green at the thought of touching her.

It made her want to laugh.

Yet another way in which Magnus proved himself utterly inferior to any real man, but most especially to Cedric.

She would never forget the way her husband had worshipped her when she'd been pregnant the first time.

Just as Sofia knew he would, Cedric had been joyful, loving and devoted from the moment she'd told him. He'd been everything she was taught to expect in man caring for a pregnant wife.

What she hadn't expected was his passion for her during those months.

The physical connection they shared had always been almost mystical, even before they'd become lovers.

She remembered so many times when they'd touched each other innocently. A brush of their hands over a potion, an unintentional press of their sides while sharing a book, only to be jolted apart by the frission of energy that would pass between them.

Once they'd given into their feelings, that connection had grown.

Sofia knew, despite having been innocent, that the pleasure she found in Cedric's arms was something she would never experience with another man.

But when she'd become pregnant she'd been frightened that connection would weaken. That Cedric's ardor for her would cool in the face of her ever expanding body.

Instead his desire for her had grown to near frenzy.

He couldn't keep his hands off of her. He couldn't keep his mouth off her. Once she'd teased him he couldn't function unless he was inside her, only to find herself tossed on the bed, her nightgown in shreds on the floor, and Cedric hard between her thighs.

Entering her reverently, he'd taken the back of her head in his hand, his eyes holding hers prisoner as he whispered exactly how desperately he needed her. He told her, in the most explicit detail, how impossible it was to see her body change as his child grew within her, and not burry himself inside her.

The memory made her shuddering with desire and ache with desperation all at once.

Cedric!

Sofia stopped moving, her legs finally giving out, as she collapsed in a heap on her floor.

Gasping for air, tears finally coming in a salty torrent, she tried to push down her desperate need to see him, to be safe in his arms.

He would come.

He wouldn't ever abandon her.

She just needed to be strong.

And telling Magnus had been the right thing.

Whatever disgusting, dirty things he'd insinuated that first night, she knew he wouldn't touch her now.

But oh god what if they didn't come for her, what if something had happened?

She might be safe from Magnus's lust for now, but in exchange she'd given him a weapon with which to control her.

He knew now he need only threaten the life within her and he would have her immediate capitulation, no matter what the demand.

That's how he'd gotten her onto that balcony without having to drag her by her hair, kicking and screaming.

"You'll do exactly what I tell you to or I'll cut that carnival magician's abomination from your belly with my dinner knife." He'd roared in her face the morning before when she'd refused to cooperate.

Sofia shivered from head to toe recalling the look in his eyes as he'd said it.

Magnus had come to her each of the three days she'd been his prisoner, making threats, roaring his anger, and trying to put the fear of god in her. Sofia had become convinced during these tirades, he was utterly insane.

So much so, she had a hard time understanding how he'd been able to lead the invasion of an entire country.

In the end though, it mattered little.

He was here, he was deeply unstable, and if no one came for her soon she would have find a way to escape on her own.

Because if she didn't, Sofia was now quite certain, Magnus would take her baby the moment it was born and use her precious child as leverage to have whatever he wanted from her, for the rest of her life.

Ohh, if only they hadn't taken her amulet. If only they hadn't emptied her room of everything before locking her in here. If only she could get to the West tower! If she could get a wand from the workshop then….

"Get up you wretched witch!"

Sofia startled as the doors to her room were thrown open.

Looking up, she saw Elliot striding in, his pudgy face twisted into its characteristic evil smirk, with Greylock following doggedly behind him.

"Sofia, we need you to come to Cedric's workshop with us." It was Graylock who spoke this time.

His voice was gentle, almost apologetic, as he came to stand beside her, bending down and offering his arm to help her up.

Sofia tried to keep the look of bewilderment on her face, even as she felt a tiny kite of hope start soaring within her.

"What? Why?" She asked, trying to sound confused, knowing it would match what she could only imagine was the state of her. Tears streaking down her face, hair a disheveled mess, her nightgown and robe wrinkled and disarrayed.

"Be quiet and get up. You'll find out when we get there." Elliot spit at her, even as he concentrated the majority of his disdain on Graylock for the small courtesy of helping her up.

Following behind Elliot, Graylock kept her arm the entire way to the tower workshop.

She and Cedric had seen him quite frequently, but Elliot not at all, since the day of her examination before the Masters. It seemed though things in Rudistan had changed a great deal since then, as had the balance of power between Graylock and his troublesome Apprentice.

Sofia was trying to figure out what could have brought it about when they finally reached the top of the west tower.

She didn't know if she actually cried out or if the sob of anguish had only been inside her own head. But she knew the only reason she remained standing was because of Graylock's support.

The workshop, the place where so many of the most important memories of her life had taken place, was in complete ruins.

The floor was littered with the shards of broken beakers and flasks. Books had been thrown about, their pages ripped out. Even innocuous things that could have no reason to offend anyone, like Wormwoods cage and perch, had been torn down and broken to bits.

The only thing that wasn't in ruins was a small collection of books and potions on Cedric's work table.

"No, no, no, no."

Breaking free of Graylock's light grip she ran, but not out of the tower, she knew that was hopeless. They'd passed at least fifty guards on their way here.

She ran through the workshop, heedless of the glass bits that embedded themselves in her feet, and down to the bedroom.

All she wanted was to throw herself on the bed and bury her face in Cedric's pillow. To smell his scent and try to convince herself, when she pulled her face from it, all would be well. He'd be lying beside her, giving her that look as he pulled her into his arms.

But when she opened the door, she found only more destruction.

The chair by the fire, his writing desk, the bed, even the rugs!

Why were they doing this?

Even if Graylock and Elliot wanted to steal from the workshop, why lay waste to it? There was no sense in that!

Anger rose in her then, burning hot and barely restrained. Anger that needed an outlet or it would consume her.

Walking a back into the workshop she stalked over to Elliot.

He turned in surprise, but too late.

By the time he was facing her, Sofia's fist was already connecting with his face. There was a sickening crack before he was sent back several steps by the force of the impact.

"YOU!" She screamed at the short, pudgy, _evil_ man in front of her. "You're responsible for this aren't you? How dare you?"

Elliot held his nose, which was gushing blood. But if she expected him to back down, as he'd done all those years ago when Graylock had hit him in the Hall of Master's, it was Sofia's turn to be surprised.

Instead he brought out his wand and without hesitation pointed it at her.

"Go ahead, try to do it again!" Elliot taunted her. "The only reason you're still alive is because I need something to distract that raving fool downstairs!"

Graylock had moved in front of her now, shielding her from Elliot's rage.

"How dare I, you ask? I dare because I'm the one with the power now, Princess. I dare because all of this is my doing. I'm more powerful now than you, or _Master_ Cedric, or Graylock or anyone else! I'm powerful enough I don't even need that stupid jewel I ripped from your throat!

And when the time is right, I'll kill all of you and Magnus too, and then everyone will understand I was the greatness behind all of this.

For now I have use for all of you. But you better watch yourself. Touch me again and I'll figure out another way to keep Magnus occupied."

Sofia looked at him disbelieving, and realized he was dead serious.

"Why?"

"Why? Why what? There are so many reasons Princess.

Why pretend to continue studying with Graylock when I was really exploring secrets he was too cowardly to learn. Well I did that for power. To prove I was greater than all those people, you included, who thought you were so much better than me.

I should have passed my Master's examination. I would have if they hadn't been so mean to me.

But now I'm happy I didn't, because then I wouldn't have gone looking for the knowledge I have now.

Why use my newfound powers to slowly start twisting the King's mind. Well why not? It's about time Kings became the puppets of Sorcerers instead of the other way around.

Why invade your kingdom, destroy your world? That's just payback Sofia. Payback for the day you ruined my life at Royal Prep, you and your _Master_."

Sofia looked at him incredulously.

"You're doing all this because we spoiled a prank of yours?"

She might have said more, but suddenly Elliot's wand lit and he sent a barrage of sparks at her.

Graylock was able to move them just in the nick of time, and the explosion of power hit the twisted metal that had been Wormwood's cage instead. When the energy dissipated it was nothing more than a scorch mark on the floor.

"You think that's all you did, don't you, you spoiled little bitch?" Elliot was screaming now. "You don't even understand how I've paid and paid for that one harmless mistake. You made the fairies tell the headmaster and the headmaster told my King.

If you want to mess with Royals, you should be punished by them too, that asshole said, as if it were my just deserts. They took my father and threw him in prison. My mother, sister, brother, and I fled Friesenburg, but by the time we'd made it to Rudistan my little sister was sick.

She died because of you!

So when we asked for sanctuary in Rudistan I made sure to put myself in Graylock's path. My brother and I had such a sad story, and Graylock you see has such a _kind_ heart." Elliot spit that as though it were dirt in his mouth. "Well he couldn't help but take us under his wing.

My brother blamed me for all of it and wanted nothing more than to move on.

But I always knew I would use my powers to get revenge. When I failed my Master's exam I realized I'd been wasting my time. Parlor tricks wouldn't help me anyway. I needed power the good Masters don't dole out. And here we are."

"Elliot, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, what you've been through all for a childish mistake. But I didn't do this to you. I never asked the fairies to punish you, or your friends. And no one here has done anything to you either. I know you're angry, you have every right to be, but…."

"Shut up!" He screamed at her. "I'm not interested in your lies. All I'm interested in is getting this open. That's why you're here." Elliot used his wand to point to the locked compartment that had always been hidden by the picture of Goodwin and Winifred.

"It's spelled, but I'm betting you can open it."

Sofia looked at the latch and her heart clenched, knowing what was behind the little door.

Walking over to wall, she placed her hand on the compartment, watching it glow for a moment before it popped open.

Before she could do anything more, Elliot shoved her aside roughly, causing her to lose her balance and fall on the floor.

The pain of meeting the stone stunned her momentarily, and so when she could concentrate on anything else again, Elliot was standing over her, rage in his eyes.

"This is it?" He was holding the wand case she'd made Cedric all those years ago for Wassalia.

He'd put it, and a few other things, away in the little compartment after one of the maids had stolen from their tower.

After fixing the damage the woman had wrought, Cedric decided there were things in his workshop he shouldn't just leave out. His family wand, his personal spell book, and several potions which could have dangerous uses had gone into the little safe-like structure.

She noticed the potions and Cedric's spell book had been placed on the worktable along with the other things that had been spared Elliot's hate filled rage.

But he was standing over her now, the wand case in hand, looking as though nothing he'd found had been worth the price of having to drag her up here.

Sofia looked at the box, trying to keep the hope from her face. Though she hated seeing him touching something she'd made for Cedric, she began to wonder if she could possibly trick Elliot into to giving her the wand. After all he clearly didn't understand what he was holding or he would be dancing around now in demonic joy. Could she pass it off as sentimental junk?

Putting on her most affronted look, Sofia picked herself up to her full height.

"Don't you touch that!" She said, channeling Amber. "I made that for Cedric. You have no right to touch it. Take your petty revenge on anything else, but not on my gift!" The evil light lit in Elliot's eyes, just as Sofia had expected. "It means the world to me!"

Picking the wand out of the box, Elliot dropped the case as if it were trash. As Sofia hoped, he thought she'd made wand and not just the case.

"You made this?" He pinned her with a sneer. "No wonder it's such a piece of garbage. Here," Elliot held it out to her, a hand open under either end, "take it if it's so important to you." Just as Sofia was about to pick it up, Elliot's hands turned into fists.

There was a snapping noise as he broke Cedric's wand in two and then a laugh of pure hatred as he flung the pieces at her.

"Opps!"

Elliot continued laughing at her as she bent to pick up the broken wand, holding the two pieces in trembling hands, while she began to sob.

"Take her back to her room, Graylock. I have a spell book to start studying."

With that Elliot turned to Cedric's worktable as though Sofia and Graylock didn't even exist.

"I'm so sorry Sofia." Graylock said when they'd descended the steps of the tower and were back in the main part of the castle.

"Graylock, why are you doing this? You're not like Elliot or Magnus. You're Cedric's friend, why?" She asked, stopping and turning to look at the older man.

The sorcerer looked down at the floor, but Sofia could see tears forming in his eyes.

"I don't' want too. I don't want to help Elliot or Magnus, but I have no choice." Raising his eyes then, Graylock looked at her with such fear and anguish. "I have to help them or Alana and…." He couldn't finish.

Sofia felt her stomach twist.

"They took your family?"

Graylock nodded, the tears falling now.

"Magnus is holding them somewhere. If I don't do what they ask of me, he'll kill them. Oh Sofia I'll never forgive myself. This is all my fault. I thought I could save that little devil from himself. I saw the signs he was descending into darkness and like a clod I thought I could prevent it.

And all the while I was trying to save him, I was really just allowing him time to turn the tables on me. To take control of the King and turn his hateful plans into reality. And now it's too late.

This is my punishment for such foolhardiness."

Sofia wrapped her arms around Graylock then. She needed comfort desperately and she knew he did too.

Graylock put his arms around her too and for a long moment they stood there, trying to pull strength from each other.

After a moment he took her chin in between his fingers and turned her head so he could kiss her cheek.

"I can't do anything overt to help you Sofia. But I promise I will do whatever I can to keep you safe. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if you were hurt. Besides," Graylock chuckled then, more to try to cheer himself than to actually accomplish it, "Cedric would have my head if I let his heart and soul be harmed."

"Thank you Graylock,"

They walked back to her room and Graylock embraced her one last time before the guards shut her back in.

Turning around, Sofia let tears run down her cheeks unchecked. If the guards outside heard her, she knew they would think she were merely weeping from hopelessness as she had before Graylock and Elliot came for her.

Sliding down the door, Sofia pulled the two pieces of Cedric's wand from her pocket, where she'd put them during her display of overwrought-ness in the tower.

The weeping continued for all to hear, as a smile no one could see lit her face.

Placing the two pieces together on the floor, Sofia raised her hand above them.

"Potest ultra instaurari!" She whispered.

Sofia watched as the two pieces joined themselves, light bursting from the crack in the wood only to disappear a moment later when the break had been sealed.

Just as she'd guessed, Cedric's wand was powerful enough to mend itself.

Sofia felt laughter bubbling up within her.

No doubt it sounded like crazed laughter, but she didn't care.

In her hands she held a wand.

And not just any wand.

Elliot had meant to hurt her by breaking it.

Instead he'd handed her the most powerful object in the castle.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: So I gave up trying to spell some of the other Kingdoms' names correctly. I realized I was totally spelling Freezenburg wrong the last two stories and I'm sure I'm doing it with Khaldoun too, but I just stopped caring. It's probably spelled like five different ways in this story.**

 **Disclaimer: Sofia is 25, Cedric is 41 and I don't own them or anyone else, I'm just putting Cedric in Chain mail…yum.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Tilly**

.o~O*O~o.

They were standing in the war room.

Never had Tilly believed she would need to make a space in her magical, whimsical castle for planning death. She knew the world wasn't always a happy place, but Enchancia had been at peace for hundreds of years. That something like this could happen seemed surreal.

"I think our best plan is to start a sweep." James was saying. "If we teleport directly to the castle or Dunwitty village we risk being sandwiched. If we start a sweep just below the highlands where the farthest contingent of Magnus's men are and push to the castle we won't have to worry about a rear attack. We'll just sweep them out like unwanted dust."

As he spoke James motioned over a large table on which the kingdom of Enchancia had been turned into a three dimensional map.

Before anyone could say more the door opened to admit Winifred, with a decidedly worse for the wear Cedric by her side.

Moving from her place at the table Tilly walked around and gave Cedric a warm hug.

She'd never admit it aloud of course, but Cedric was her favorite nephew. Not just because he had the good sense to fall in love her favorite niece either.

They had never interacted much before he married Sofia, but in the years since they'd spent a good deal of time together. Tilly found him to be a gifted, wickedly intelligent, often acerbic man who made her laugh with his prickly wit and unique perspective on life. And as she'd told her own husband years ago, she loved one of a kind things! Cedric definitely fell under that category.

"I'm so glad Zandar didn't manage to make pudding of your head dear." She smiled up at him. "I just know they'd all chicken out when it came time to tell Sofia we accidentally killed you. And then I'd have to do it."

"I'll try to spare you that duty as long as possible. It would perhaps help if you could keep blunt objects out of Zandar's hands from now on."

Tilly led Cedric's to the map table.

Glancing around she noticed Rolland, James, and Goodwin all had the decency to look ashamed of themselves.

"Cedric I…." Rolland seemed to be trying to apologize, but Cedric just held up his hand, making it clear the King should stop.

"The only important thing right now is getting Sofia back."

Cedric's words were like ice, and Tilly sensed forgiveness wasn't coming anytime soon. He would simply overlook the whole thing for now.

Tilly also sensed Cedric cared less about nearly having been brained than he did about the fact they'd left Sofia behind.

"Let's bring you up to speed than." Rolland coughed a few times as though he were trying to clear his throat. "King Nasir has decided to remain in Khaldoun. So Khalid will command his armies. He and Zandar will be returning sometime before sunset today.

Once they arrive we'll teleport down to here." Rolland pointed to a spot on the map approximately forty miles from the base of the Highlands. "From there we'll march the ten miles to Ramblingham and begin engaging Magnus's men. The first contingent is the smallest, we should clear them easily. Then it's a fifty mile march to the castle. Clearing out Magnus's men as we go, we should be able to reach the castle in three to four days."

Goodwin took over for the Rolland at this point.

"I will be in charge of providing magical protection and assistance for the troops. Cedric you'll stay with the King. You'll be in charge of protecting him and Duchess Matilda. Winifred will be in charge of providing care for the wounded. With three sorcerers they should be hard pressed to match us!"

"That all sounds enchanting, but am I the only one who thinks it's all a bit too easy?" Cedric interjected.

"No you're not," Tilly responded. "If it were this easy they never would have taken Enchancia to begin with." Tilly pinned her brother with a hard look, but he only scowled in return.

"This is how you fight a war. You take a bunch of bodies and you throw them in front of a problem."

"And if we're not successful?"

"I'm not giving Magus my Kingdom or my daughter. We'll just have to be."

.o~O*O~o. .o~O*O~o. .o~O*O~o.

Dusk was falling as they assembled on the large field Tilly used for jousting tournaments.

A chill was just touching the air as they began to mount up.

She watched as Cedric pulled himself up onto the large white horse next to her. She'd never say it, but he struck a heroic figure all in mail and leather, wand in hand, sword at his back, even if she could see the nervousness on his face.

And she was happy to see Sofia had helped him lose his fear of horses and become a rather proficient rider over the years.

It would serve them all well in the next few days.

Her attention moved to her husband riding up to them from among the ranks of her Highlanders. Bartleby was technically a Duke now, but as soon as they'd come home to the Highlands he'd made it his business to whip a standing army into shape. He was the commander of her forces tonight with James as his Lieutenant.

And they were the front line of this war. Zandar would command the left flank with his men from Tangu and Khalid the right with his Khaldounese troops. But it would be Enchancians at the fore taking back their kingdom.

"We're ready." He said, pulling his horse up next to hers.

"Be careful." She said reaching out to cup his handsome square jaw and feather her fingers through hair that was just beginning to grey.

"I have no intention of being careful, but I do promise to be here when it's over. This is what I do for a living remember?" Bartleby's voice squeaked with excitement and she could see his smile was all eagerness for the battle ahead.

He leaned forward giving her a quick, hard kiss.

As he turned his horse back to his men, he and Cedric shared a look between them. And before Bartleby road off she saw Cedric give him a subtle nod.

"Is that man speak for something?" She chuckled, deciding flippancy was better than admitting nervousness.

"That was his way of letting me know he's entrusting you to me. And my way of telling him I have no intention of letting nerves get the better of me. I'm not leaving anymore wives behind for Magnus to claim."

Tilly swallowed hard at that.

She couldn't blame him, but she was worried for Cedric. Sofia was all that was good in his world and without her he seemed to be losing sight of himself, slipping into the old skin of anger, hopelessness, and hatred she thought he'd shed.

"You know she's alright don't you? Sofia is the toughest person I know. She wouldn't just swoon pathetically and let Magnus have his way with her. And if we can't find our way to her, she'll find a way back to us. You have to have faith."

He looked at her then and her worst fears were confirmed.

But then the signal went up and there was no more time for conversation.

Raising his wand high into the air, Cedric intoned the words of the transport spell. She could hear it echoing even as Goodwin and Winifred's voices also bounced around the field.

Suddenly there was a bright light and a pulling feeling. Tilly felt as if her insides had begun to move before her outside. As quickly as it came the light dissipated and they were at the base of the large mountain that enclosed the Highlands from the south.

"Wow, let's not do that too much, okay?" Tilly pitched forward a little on her horse, a wave of nausea rolling over her.

"It's gets easier each time. After a while you won't even notice it."

Rolland who was in front of them turned. They were a sea of ten thousand, some on horseback many on foot. A formidable force if ever there was one.

He put up his hand and a cry went through the ranks. And like that they were an army on the move.

They marched through the night, their forms shielded by darkness, the sounds of so many feet and hooves like the rumbling of thunder before a storm.

The sun was peaking over the horizon as they reached Ramblingham.

They needed to make it across the bridge before they could engage the enemy. But once passed it, they would be properly in the lowlands and Enchancia castle would be a straight shot along the Ramblingham road.

It was a tense crossing. Rolland assured them, with a look that was part exasperation and part fondness, that the bridge would hold them all. But as they crossed it and came into view of Rambling Hall, they all felt a tightness in their stomachs.

The Highlands had been spared, as Tilly had known they would be. Her home was too remote and treacherous to risk and open invasion. Ramblingham didn't have that luxury.

The Hall was a scorched ruin, the village burnt out till only the few structures made out of stone and not wood remained.

There were some people milling about, but when they saw the Enchancian army they began to scatter. Fear in their eyes, not hope.

Tilly shared a look with Cedric, but they said nothing.

As they came nearer the castle they began to split off. Zandar and Khalid fanned their troops out along the flanks, while Bartleby took command of the center and James brought up the rear.

From here they would let the others pass them and take up position behind James's men. Rolland hadn't liked going behind his army, but Tilly and the others had been adamant there was no point in taking back Enchancia just to have him die in battle.

They heard a commotion before they saw anything.

And then Magnus's men began to appear.

Eight Knights on horseback took up positions as foot soldiers began to assemble around them.

There were perhaps five tense minutes while the two armies simply stared at each other. Then Bartleby signaled to a young man beside him. The boy raised a Highland horn which let out a long trumpeting sound and suddenly the two sides where rushing into the gap between them, men screaming, weapons out.

There was a sound like a great boom when the two armies finally collided.

Tilly had never seen war before, not real war.

But she had heard about it from Bartleby. She couldn't see though how the massive chaos before her transformed itself in his mind into something nearly romantic.

There was nothing here but suffering and death.

At the rear though, there wasn't much to worry about, and so she watched.

Messengers ran back and forth from the ranks updating Rolland on the status of the battle and taking his advice back to his generals, and for the first hour or so it seemed as if they would win as easily as James had imagined.

Until, suddenly they heard thunder crack overhead, followed by the crash of lightening.

When Tilly looked up though, there was no rain.

Cedric motioned with his wand to the burnt out top tower of Rambling Hall where a figure now appeared brandishing a wand from which a red light shot out into the air.

They saw a burst of white light from somewhere in the ranks, Goodwin attempting a spell on the figure.

But the light from Goodwin's spell fizzled out a hundred feet from the tower top.

Cedric pointed his wand next, saying something Tilly didn't understand before a purple light shot from his wand. Cedric's shot made it closer than Goodwin's, but it also fizzled out with hitting the target.

"Merlin's mushrooms," Cedric cursed, "the tower is spelled against attack."

Suddenly it was as if the sun had set, though it had only dawned an hour ago at most.

The entire field went pitch black and Tilly couldn't see her hand in front of her face. She heard panic rising from all sides of her.

Then Cedric spoke again, and there was a burst of purple from the end of his wand.

Seconds later light shone down over the battlefield.

She saw two more come up as Goodwin and Winifred followed his lead.

People assumed Goodwin was the more powerful sorcerer, but it was obvious Cedric thought quicker on his feet.

Without the sun it was impossible to tell how long the battle went on. But it became clear from that point on they were not going to be the victors.

The reports from the flanks and the head turned terrifying.

The men they were fighting had somehow been transformed. They no longer behaved like men. They were unable to be injured. When a blow did land, it didn't stop them whether it drew blood or not. They simply kept coming, crazed, wounded but unstoppable, cutting down ten, twenty men for every one of them.

"They're using black magic," Cedric's eyes grew wide with realization.

Tilly knew he was right. There was the taste of something foul in the air that hadn't been there before the sky went dark.

Any attempts to counter it failed though and the figure who'd blotted out the sky had disappeared only moments later.

Suddenly a rider came back to the rear. Goodwin had been injured, the troops where unprotected. It was wholesale slaughter now.

Cedric spurred his horse, but Tilly caught the reigns before he could move.

"You won't do anyone any good, getting injured yourself, we need to retreat!"

"I might be able to figure out how to stop the magic if I can get closer to it, see it." He argued with her, even as his face went ashen at the realization he'd just volunteered to rush headlong into a sea of steal, blood, and body parts.

"Or you can get yourself killed and then what am I going to tell Sofia? Your job is to protect the king. You don't abandon your post in a battle, Cedric. With Goodwin out of the fight, we have to leave now or lose all our forces. You have to do it now!"

Cedric looked at her with naked rage in his eyes, but lifted his wand.

One sorcerer, even a talented one couldn't take thousands of men very far, but Cedric was able to transport them back to the base of the Highlands. Farther than Tilly had thought possible.

Swinging his leg over his horse, Cedric jumped down, anger making him light on his feet. He paced, his face going dark and sinister as people buzzed about him putting up the King's tent.

It was fifteen minutes before they were all assembled again, taking stock of the situation.

Bartleby, James, and Khalid joined Rolland, Cedric, James and herself in the King's tent.

Bartleby and the two Princes had all sustained only minor injuries. But Zandar had been badly wounded. He was with Winifred now, but if she couldn't help him Tilly feared Amber would soon be a widow.

"This was supposed to be the easy battle." Cedric spit at Rolland.

Rolland just looked at him with barely restrained anger, Tilly felt certain was merely a cover for guilt. There losses had been heavy. Four thousand men had perished. Almost half their force gone in what was supposed to have been a skirmish.

"I don't understand. Our plan was sound! Magnus couldn't have had more than two thousand men quartered at Ramblingham. We outnumbered them two to one!"

"We lost because our enemy is using black magic. We could have outnumbered them twenty to one and we still would have been slaughtered!" Cedric looked at the King exasperated to have to spell it out. "The men we fought were no longer men. They were little better than zombies animated by the figure we saw in the tower."

"Black magic?" Rolland repeated.

Tilly knew her brother wasn't questioning his sorcerer. He was trying to make sense of this move on Magnus's part. To figure out what could have driven Magnus to something so forbidden.

Kings made war all the time, they took each other's lands and riches, but the use of black magic was so dangerous, so unpredictable, only the greatest fool or the most evil villain would turn to it in order to ensure a victory.

Magnus had never struck her as either, pompous and over important yes, but evil, no.

The man must have lost his mind?

Before more could be said, one of the Kings personal guard opened the flap of the tent. Bowing he looked at the King.

"Magnus has sent a messenger, the man teleported here."

More bad news thought Tilly, now we've given our position away as well as being all but crippled by our losses.

"Send him in."

Magnus's messenger was slight and nondescript, except for certain weasel like quality to his face.

"I bring you terms from my King." The man began, an oily quality to his voice. "King Rolland you are to relinquish your claim on Enchancia and you and your family are to enter exile at once. If you do this willingly my king will spare your men and allow them to return to their homes unharmed. All except him."

The man turned and pointed to Cedric.

"You are to bring King Rolland's surrender personally to Enchancia Castle. There you will give yourself up as well. The others may be spared, but you will be publically executed at the opening ceremony of my King's wedding to Princess Sofia. If you do not comply with Magnus's terms not a single life will be spared the next time we meet in battle."

With that the man bowed and disappeared before their eyes.

Before anyone could start thumping their chests and declaring they would die in glory before surrendering, Cedric was at the main table.

He grabbed a pen and a quill and began scribbling.

When he was done he dumped drying salt on it and handed it to Rolland.

When the king had taken the paper from him, Cedric ungloved his right hand. For a moment Cedric just stared at his wedding ring as it reflected in the light of the tent, then surprising everyone, he ripped it off.

Dropping it on the paper he motioned to Rolland.

"Cedric what is this?" Rolland looked horrified as he scanned what Cedric had written

"It's a ploy for time." Cedric's voice was clear and confident, no hint of a stammer. His back straight, his face determined. "Tomorrow you will send a messenger to the castle telling Magnus you've surrendered and are at this very moment on your way to Corintha to ask for asylum. He will give Magnus my ring and this paper.

You'll instruct the messenger to relay to Magnus your apologies for not being able to deliver me with the note, but Cedric always was a sniveling coward as well as a second rate bungler. He'll tell Magnus the pathetic story of how, when I found out my head would not be upon my shoulders for much longer, I first begged you in tears to spare my life, and when you wouldn't, I ran in the night. The only things I left behind were my wedding ring and a written relinquishment of my marriage.

In the meantime you'll retreat back to the Highlands and stay put until I return."

"Where are you going?" Rolland asked, confusion still written on his face.

"Helhiem Mountain," was all Cedric said, but it was enough to spur Tilly into action.

"Cedric you can't go there." She got in front of him, trying to block his path to the tent opening, her arm on his shoulder before he could push her away.

"We're fighting black magic, Tilly. You know as well as I do, we aren't going to get anywhere playing fair." He shrugged her hand from his arm easily and continued walking to the tent door.

"Cedric wait," it was Rolland this time.

"I'm through waiting. If we had done things my way, Sofia would be here now, not being wed to Magnus as you all sit around refusing to understand the gravity of what we're up against!

I'll be back in two days. DO NOT MOVE FROM THE HIGHLANDS UNTIL I RETURN!"

"What makes you think they'll even help you?" Tilly asked, desperate to delay him even a moment.

"I have friends in dark places."


	8. Chapter 8

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Sofia had wasted the night with indecision.

Now she had Cedric's wand she could finally make her escape.

Her first instinct wasn't to run though. It was to burst from her room, wand in hand, and vanquish the enemy single handedly.

It wasn't in her nature to play the swooning princess waiting to be rescued. She was a woman of action, she always had been. Better to rush the throne room and kill Magnus, or battle the five hundred or so guards in and around the castle than slink away like a coward.

But killing Magnus would also mean having to kill Elliot.

He was the real villain in all this.

And though Sofia believed she was the stronger sorcerer, Elliot was playing with black magic. Magic dangerous and unpredictable enough she wouldn't use it even to win. Which convinced her any confrontation with Elliot, no matter who won, would result in her injury.

She had gone back and forth for hours. Until she'd finally come to the conclusion she wouldn't be playing Warrior Sorceress this time.

Cedric would never forgive her if she got herself killed.

And she would never forgive herself if her actions harmed their child.

Touching her stomach, Sofia felt a twinge of regret.

She'd been sure she was pregnant for almost two weeks, but had put off telling Cedric because they were going to their cottage in the woods after James's wedding.

It was there special place.

A strange little house by a stream, tucked deep in the woods, and built entirely around an enormous ancient oak tree.

It had been abandoned for a long time when they stumbled across it, but it wasn't anything a little magic couldn't fix.

They went there as often as they could now, just the three of them.

She and Miranda would shed their princess dresses, Cedric would leave his robes, and they would live like simple folk. She would cook all their meals. Cedric would tinker with his ever growing array of inventions. And Miranda would find a bevy of woodland creatures to play with. Giving Clover and Wormwood, who were both getting on in years, the chance to rest from being the constant companions of an exuberant five year old.

She'd planned out exactly how she would tell him. Sending Miranda off to play, while they had a quiet lunch, just the two of them.

Then there would have been no one around to hear her scream when he'd made joyful, ecstatic love to her in celebration!

Instead here she was cradling the beginnings of a small roundness alone.

Offhandedly she mused this was far earlier than she'd begun to show with Miranda. But Ruby had shown earlier and earlier with each of her pregnancies so Sofia thought this was probably normal.

Ruby….

She'd been so wrapped up in her own worries and fears she'd given very little thought to her friends in the village.

Looking out her window now she tried to see Dunwitty. The smoke had stopped rising from it two days ago, but she was too far away to know if anyone remained in the village or if they'd all been killed or fled.

Her thoughts were interrupted when a guard burst into her room.

"Princess, you're presence is required in the throne room."

The man closed the door again and left Sofia alone with a feeling of dread forming in her stomach.

Hurrying to her closet she tried to find something to wear.

Magnus had decided he didn't like her in black and so he'd taken her ball gown away.

The last time she'd used this room seriously was the two weeks before Miranda had been born. Other than that, when they were here, they lived in the west tower. All of her clothes were there.

Sofia tried to stifle a bolt of anger. All of her clothes were probably ribbons on the closet floor now.

Trying to find something, she frantically pushed hangers aside until she came across a lavender gown that was essentially a larger version of the dress she'd loved so much as a child. It was so far from her style now it made her feel a little strange putting it on, like trying to step back in time.

But it only had a few hooks at the back instead of the long column which was more typical of her formal gowns and that meant she could get into it on her own.

Struggling into the dress Sofia found it was a tad too tight.

The last time she'd worn it she was probably fifteen.

She hadn't grown a single inch since then, much to her dismay, but she had given birth.

When Sofia finally got the dress closed it was obvious how poorly it fit her now.

The neckline in this gown dropped to her shoulders and the bodice was too small, making her spill out the top.

Though she had only the slightest hint of roundness to her belly, her hips were fuller now than what the dress allotted and she felt like she could barely breathe.

Looking in the mirror, the only thing Sofia could think was she looked like a prostitute playing princess.

Still it would have to do.

"In for a penny, in for a pound," she sighed as she pulled the exact tiara she used to wear as a little girl from the shelves and jammed it on her head.

Leaving the closet she walked to the door and knocked on it from the inside.

The same guard opened it, and proceeded to walk in front of her all the way to the throne room. Two more flanked her from behind.

She wondered at how they were all so afraid of one little woman. But then they ought to be. No doubt Elliot and Graylock had informed them what she'd be capable of if they gave her even half an inch.

When they reached the throne room the guards opened the door for her and she entered alone.

There was a man standing at the foot of the throne.

Sofia tried to keep herself from gasping. He was wearing her Aunt Tilly's colors!

At the sound of the door, Magnus looked up from the paper he was reading and pinned her with something between a sneer and a leer.

"That's much better," he purred at her before motioning her to take the seat next to him.

Her mother's throne had been salvaged from the wreckage of the first night and whenever Magnus decided he'd like to scream and rage at her here instead of in her room, she was expected to sit in it.

Walking now, as regally as she could, she ascended the steps and sat, trying hard to tamp down on the urge to run to Tilly's messenger and shake him till the man told her everything he knew about her family.

"It seems your damn father needed more incentive than having to flee his castle through a picture, to realize he should leave Enchancia to a real king!" Magnus started.

Sofia gripped the edges of her mother's throne hard and willed herself not to look at him or make any reply. No matter which one she made it always seemed to be wrong.

"They tried to fight me at Ramblingham, but Elliot's magic won the day." He continued.

Sofia saw a malicious smile paint his face out of the corner of her eye.

"Your father and the rest of your family are on their way to Corinthia now, so says his messenger. All except your _amazing_ husband." He laughed outright now, and Sofia couldn't help herself. She turned to him with wide eyes, desperate to know anything he would tell her about Cedric. "Here," he held out a paper to her, "why don't you read it directly from the cowards own pen."

Sofia all but ripped the paper out of his hand.

She read quickly, and then read it again, and again, trying to make it say something different.

Cedric repudiated their marriage.

He gave up all claim to her as his wife.

Sofia was reading over the four lines for the tenth time when Magnus dropped something into her lap.

Cedric's wedding ring.

A gold band with small rubies and diamonds inlaid around the entire outer surface. It was the match to the band she wore on her own finger. They'd created the rings themselves, to compliment her beautiful engagement ring.

Sofia couldn't form words. Instead she simply shook her head back and forth as tears sprung to her eyes.

It was a trick. It had to be.

"Where is my husband? What have you done with him? He would never take his ring off willingly."

Magnus just laughed at her some more, his fat belly shaking with his mirth.

"I haven't done anything with him. After I defeated your worthless family I sent word he was to bring your father's surrender himself. I was going to behead him just before we said our vows and you became _my_ wife. But when the coward found out he wrote this and left it on his pillow before fleeing like the impotent craven he is. If you don't believe me ask your Aunt's messenger. "

She looked at the man standing below them, her eyes pleading with him to contradict Magnus.

"It's true your highness. I'm so sorry."

"And my family…they've fled to Corintha?"

The man didn't answer her this time. He just looked at the floor.

"You can go back to your room now, Sofia. I just wanted to share the good news with you." With that Magnus rose from her father's throne and waddled his way towards the dining room.

When he was gone, the messenger ran up the steps and took her by the arms, startling her.

"Princess," his voice was barely above a whisper, so soft even she had a hard time hearing him. "You're family have not fled, they're hiding at Glenbonnie."

Sofia looked at him and a wave of relief washed over her.

"And Cedric is there too?" She was already smiling and nodding as if he'd given her a response, but when he lowered his eyes and shook his head she felt her heart sink.

"He's not with your family Highness. No one knows where he is."

Sofia shut her eyes tightly, refusing to allow the breaking feeling in heart to take her over.

Looking up at the messenger she grabbed his hand in return.

"Tell my family I'm alright and that they shouldn't try to come for me. I can take care of myself. And _when_ you see my husband tell him I love him. Tell him I'm counting on him to take care of Miranda. Tell him…tell him I'm taking care of myself and Winifred."

The messenger gave her a puzzled look, but promised to relay her message word for word.

"Now go, before you're hurt for talking to me."

The messenger kissed her hand, and bowed low before running down the steps and out of the throne room.

When he was gone, Sofia threw the hateful piece of paper off her lap and brought Cedric's ring to her lips.

"I don't believe it!"

Sofia looked down at the rings on her own finger. Taking them off, she put Cedric's on her finger first, then replaced her engagement ring, and finally her wedding band. Wearing them this way secured his larger ring so it wouldn't slip off. When it was done, she stood with purpose.

She was ready to leave now.

Once the guards had locked her back in her room, Sofia stripped off her to small dress and took the only other one that would fit her out of the closet.

A peasant dress she used to wear when she went on her story keeper adventures.

It was a loose purple dress that ended at her knees and had short bell sleeves and a scooped neck.

Slipping into it she found the dresses material generous enough to still fit well. The green velvet girdle that went with it, Sofia laced loosely, and the sturdy black flats she was hoping to find were still at the back of her shoe rack. Taking the matching cloak, she fastened it around her neck and went to pull Cedric's wand from underneath her mattress.

Lifting it above her head, Sofia prepared to say the words that would take her out of the castle when she realized she wasn't sure where to go.

Glenbonnie was over a hundred miles from Enchancia castle. It was a long distance for one person to go even with a wand as powerful as Cedric's. It might be better to teleport to the village and see if she could find a horse there.

If so she could make the journey to Glenbonnie by road. If not she could teleport herself in smaller distances until she finally made it there.

Sofia spoke the words, and was engulfed in a familiar wash of light.

When she materialized again, Sofia had only a moment to notice there were lights in some of the damaged buildings before she wretched violently.

Bent over double, she felt her stomach empty it's entire contents onto the dirt of the road and then continue until she'd heaved bile and even a little blood.

When it was over, she sat and cradled her stomach, pain running through her and dizziness making it hard to breathe.

She'd transported herself often enough she never got queasy from it anymore.

Putting her hand on her stomach she tried to smile, even though she felt more like crying.

"I take it that's your definitive answer on whether or not we're traveling by horse or magic." She spoke into the air.

When she felt her dizziness pass she stood up.

She was out of the castle. She was free.

Walking into the village she made her way through the empty streets, taking in the devastation all around her.

The bakery, the school house, her old home, they were all burnt out. The fields beyond the village and the garden's her father had planted were nothing more than scorched earth. Sofia's heart clenched and she felt tears pricking her eyes yet again.

When she rounded a corner though she saw a light on at Rubies' parent's home. Rushing over she knocked on the door.

Sofia heard the sound of muffled voices inside and shuffling steps, but she began to be afraid the Hanshaw's wouldn't answer.

"Mr. Hanshaw, Mrs. Hanshaw, please, please open the door." She hoped they would recognize her voice without her having to say who she was. She was afraid saying it out loud would bring soldiers from the castle down on her, ready to drag her back.

The door opened and Mr. Hanshaw stood there.

"Princess Sofia?" He looked at her astonished.

"I escaped."

A smile lit his face as he pulled her into the cottage, giving her a big hug before shutting and barring the door.

When Sofia got a good look around she realized there were at least thirty people crammed into the Hanshaw's home.

They were all injured.

Sofia saw Mrs. Hanshaw tending the miller's wife and Ruby, a baby slung on her back, checking the wounds of the daughter of the shoemaker who'd moved to town when she and her mother went to live in the castle.

"Most people are dead," Mr. Hanshaw told her sadly when he saw her bewilderment. "There's only about a hundred of us left alive.

Sofia hands flew to her mouth as tears started to form.

Mr. Hanshaw put his arms around her and let her cry until well after she'd soaked through his shirt.

Sometime during her tears both Ruby and her mother had come up to envelope her in hugs as well and Ruby had even cried some with her.

Jade and Lucinda had died trying to defend the village, along with just about everyone else she knew. Most of the people here were widows and orphans now.

Sofia cried until there were no more tears and then she sat at the Hanshaw's little table, numb for a while longer.

Eventually the Hanshaw's went back to tending their charges and as Sofia watched she realized she couldn't go to Glenbonnie.

With her family in hiding she was the closest thing the people of Enchancia had to a ruler. And while she'd never wanted or cared for a title, her father had taught her that part of being a monarch was being a guardian to your people.

Her people needed care now as they never had before.

Standing up, Sofia pulled out Cedric's wand.

Speaking a spell he'd taught her years and years ago, she created an exact replica of the enchanted feast. Sofia would have cried when she saw the centerpiece, a perfect roast turkey 'a la Cedric', but she'd been wrung dry. So she just clutched at his ring, and tried to ignore the aching hollowness in her stomach.

Mrs. Hanshaw was the first to see what she'd done.

"Thank you Sofia. They burnt everything and we ate the last of our food two days ago."

"Why don't we get everyone who can eat a plate and then you need to sit eat yourselves. You need to rest. I'll see what I can do for the injured."

Mrs. Hanshaw squeezed Sofia's arms and smiled through her tears.

Once everyone had eaten, Sofia sat next to a little girl who was crying.

It was easy to see her arm was badly broken and she was running a fever. She must have been in terrible pain these last days.

Lifting Cedric's wand she spoke the spell that would mend the bone and then another which conjured a beautiful, soft teddy bear. Giving it to the girl, she cast a sleep spell over her. Rest and then food were what she needed now.

"Don't leave us Princess." The girl said before she fell off.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Cedric's back from the mountain and ready to rescue Sofia. As a warning there's a lot of graphic violence in this chapter- so hard M, but not for the sexy times (that's coming soon).**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Rolland**

.o~O*O~o.

"And you're sure she's alright?" Rolland asked.

"Yes sire. The princess told me to assure you she can take care of herself, and begged you not risk yourselves for her."

"Did she say anything else?" Rolland felt his knuckles going white where they gripped his chair, desperate for more words from his daughter.

The entire family, save for Winifred, Maya, and little Miranda, were sitting around Tilly's table in the great hall. Everyone hanging on the words of the messenger he'd sent to Magnus.

"She didn't have any other message for you sire, but she had a message for Prince Cedric."

"Tell me."

The man hesitated, as though he wanted to disobey, but in the end he looked down to the floor and began speaking.

"She asked that I tell the prince she loved him and she was counting on him to take care of Miranda. She told me to tell him she would take care of Winifred."

There was a long silence as everyone let this news sunk in. Rolland saw his wife's hand go up in front of her mouth, stifling a cry. He saw Tilly and Bartleby clasp hands as Tilly's head fell to his shoulder looking for comfort, and he saw Amber pull out her fan, making it clack as it opened, before using it to cover her face.

The silence was finally broken a few minutes later by James.

"Why would Sofia have to take care of Winifred, Cedric's mom is here with us?"

The sound of Amber's fan crashing onto the table startled everyone. Rolland saw her eyes were rimmed with red.

"Not Winifred Cedric's mother, James. Winifred, as in another daughter named after her grandmother. Sofia's pregnant!"

James seemed to process that for a moment, and Rolland knew the exact moment it all clicked for him because the color drained from his face.

"Cedric doesn't know." Was all James said before sitting back in his chair dazed.

"You may go. When his highness returns, I'll relay Princess Sofia's message."

With that Tilly's man bowed and left the room.

Rolland sat in his chair feeling even more defeated. Cedric had been right. They should have gone back for her that first night.

How had he done nothing but make things worse with each step? He was King. He was supposed to be wiser, stronger, and more capable than the rest!

Instead things had spiraled so far out of his control he wasn't sure what to do.

When they'd told Winifred and Goodwin that Cedric had left for Helheim mountain, his mother had flown into a rage he hadn't dreamed the kindly old woman capable of.

"How could you let him go there? Why didn't you stop him? Oh not my Cedi too! They'll eat him alive. They'll look into him and eat him alive. I'll never see him again!" She'd screamed, before collapsing into Goodwin's arms.

Until then Rolland hadn't understood the gravity of Cedric's decision.

The mountain was home to the most dangerous Sorcerers on the planet and if Rolland understood Goodwin, Cedric had gone to barter with them for the power to save Sofia.

"Black magic, such as the world has forgotten and does not wish to remember," was all Goodwin would say as he shook his head in despair.

Suddenly Rolland was jolted from his musings by the sounds of screaming.

Everyone was up out of their chairs like a shot and running to the windows.

The great hall was on the outer facade of castle.

From there you could see the defensive wall which enclosed the whole of the castle and beyond to the verdant northern hills.

And at this moment it was the perfect vantage point from which to see the dark shadow sweeping across the land, a single rider in black at its head.

They watched dumbstruck for long minutes as the rider and the darkness drew closer and closer, listening to the terrified shouts of the castle folk outside as they ran headlong back to the perceived safety of the indoors.

A hundred yards from the castle the shadow stopped.

The rider pulled back the hood of his cloak and looked straight into the window as though he'd seen them there even from miles away.

It was Tilly who realized it first, though how she knew Rolland would never be able to figure out.

"It's Cedric."

There was something like horror in Tilly's whisper. And in the silence of the stone room even those soft tones gained in volume as they echoed and reverberated off the walls, until it sounded as though she'd screamed.

Rolland looked for a moment more at the man on the black horse.

Then he turned, bounding his way down the long stone hallways and endless steps which led out to the northern gate.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Rolland knew the others were following him, but he never looked back.

Once outside, he ordered the terrified gate men to raise the massive wrought iron barrier.

As he waited for it to be lifted and secured, he stared hard at the man. They were two hundred paces from each other but still Rolland wasn't sure.

The man sat a huge black war horse which pawed the ground and snuffed the chill air as though it were impatient to kill something. He was dressed in black mail, with a black woolen cloak trailing behind him. But his head was bare now and Rolland could see it clearly.

The man's hair was two toned, but not the right way, black at the bangs and silver everywhere else. It was longer than Cedric wore it, falling down just past his shoulders.

Cedric's face hadn't changed much in the last two decades. Rolland would never have called his son old looking, but Cedric had always seemed to possess a 'middle-aged-ness' that was more about personality than actual appearance. This man simply didn't have that. He seemed to radiate a dark sort of power and vitality.

Yet Cedric's features were there, brown eyes, long pointy nose, thin lips, and a slightly pointed chin.

It was Cedric's face but not.

What had happened to him?

When the gate was finally secured Rolland stepped out onto the field beyond the castle and for the first time he noticed what was behind Cedric.

Not a black shadow, _hundreds_ of black shadows. Translucent shapes that slithered behind him restlessly. They were all the same, gossamer forms in hooded black tatters without faces. Yet Rolland got the distinct impression they saw everything, and at this moment they were all looking at him and his family.

It was Goodwin who finally spoke.

"What are they doing here Cedric? They aren't to come down off the mountain!"

"They'll go right back once we take care of Magnus and his forces. They're…on loan." Cedric said, not a hint of stutter or stammer as he spoke to his father.

Rolland had never heard Cedric accomplish that, even after years of Sofia's love and care had given him more confidence than he'd ever had.

"What are they Cedric?" Rolland asked as one of them seemed to break ranks for a closer look at the people in front of it.

Without looking at it or acknowledging it in anyway, Cedric raised his left hand. Rolland saw a strange golden cuff emerge from under the mail of his sleeve. It seemed to light with a black glow, and the thing was pushed back into the sea of shadows, a sick, high pitched wail emanating from it as it was hurled backwards.

"Their called the Shadows of Death. They're servants to Dark Mages." Cedric answered, his tone neutral.

"Slaves, you mean!" Goodwin roared at his son.

Goodwin's anger would have normally caused Cedric to shrink. His father was perhaps the last person who could still make Cedric feel small, but not this time. He only looked at his father with a bored expression now.

"Cordi sends her love to mother," he said simply before turning to Rolland. "You should gather Tilly's Highlanders' quickly if you intend to come with me. And you should have my mother and father send Prince Zandar and Prince Khalid back home along with their men. They won't be needed."

Rolland looked at Cedric astonished. But where before he might have bristled at being told what to do by anyone, _especially_ his son and royal sorcerer, he realized now he had no choice but to obey.

If Rolland refused, Cedric would simply leave without them.

An hour later, Rolland pulled himself up onto his horse, James beside him on his right and Cedric on his left.

Tilly's highlanders' were with them as well as Bartleby, but Cedric had warned them all to stay out of the way of the shadows.

"What do we do?" Rolland asked.

"I'll take us to base of the mountains, and then we let the shadows do as they please. They know they are only to attack Magnus's men."

With that Cedric raised his hand, and Rolland saw that there was no wand in it.

Nor were there words.

Yet seconds later they were at the base of the Highlands and back on their way to Ramblingham.

The journey to the Enchancia castle was endless. They never stopped riding. Whenever they encountered Magnus's men, the shadows would surge forth, leaving the living to watch as everything wearing Magnus's colors was cut down with sickening screams and terrified pleading.

When they passed the bodies of their enemies they found them already dry husks falling to bits, as though they had been dead many months instead of just minutes.

On and on they pressed.

When exhaustion overtook them, Cedric would mumur something and suddenly Rolland would feel as though he'd just woken from a deep, restful sleep.

Two days after they'd set out they came up on Dunwitty village and Enchancia Castle.

Cedric held up his arm and reminded the shadows they were to touch no one but Magnus's men.

"Magnus is mine." He said, something darker and more malevolent than Rolland had ever seen coming to rest in Cedric's eyes.

Rolland didn't know what he'd expected, but it was much the same as it had been everywhere else. The shadows fanned out looking for prey and they rode on.

This time straight to the castle.

When they reached the closed drawbridge, Cedric motioned as if he wanted the thing to come to him and suddenly it fell. Shadows coalesced, returning from their sweep of the village and countryside and slithered before them into the castle.

Once they were in the courtyard, Cedric dismounted and proceeded to walk up the steps as nonchalantly as if he were returning from an afternoon ride with Sofia.

Turning to Bartleby and James, Rolland pinned them with a wary look.

"Find Sofia and bring her to her old room. We'll meet you there."

Then he followed behind Cedric.

They walked past the corpses of Magnus's men and straight to the throne room.

Five shadows floated about the room as Magnus sat cowering on the first step to the throne, his Royal Sorcerer and another man Rolland didn't know standing just off to the side.

They all wore expressions of terror.

"Cedric, old boy, what have you done?" It was Magnus's royal sorcerer who spoke.

"Where's Sofia?" Was all the response Cedric gave him.

"She's in the village. She escaped yesterday, but she hasn't gone beyond there." The other two looked at him incredulously but said nothing.

"And you didn't go after her?" His words were like ice now and Rolland knew this many lived or died on his answer.

"No Cedric, I would never harm Sofia, you know that. They took Alana and our children as insurance of my help, but I promised Sofia I would help her in any way I could. When I discovered she'd escaped I said nothing."

"I believe you're done taking other men's wives for your amusement, King Magnus."

Cedric turned cold eyes on the man now and Rolland had the sudden, squeamish urge to look away. He knew what he saw next would be branded on his eyes forever.

Without Cedric making a move or saying a word, Magnus suddenly began to float in the air. He spun around several times while Cedric let him scream in fright.

"I understand you have a desire for King Rolland's throne, as well as for my wife. My wife you cannot have, but I'm happy to give you the throne."

With that Magnus was hurled into Rolland's chair repeatedly until the force of the impacts caused the throne to break into pieces. Again and again Magnus flew into the ruined bits, his body coming back bloody from cuts the splintered wood caused.

Rolland listened, sickened, as he screamed and pled for his life to no avail. Finally, _mercifully_ a large piece of broken wood found its aim, impaling him through the throat.

Magnus made one last choked gurgle and then his body fell to the floor a lifeless heap.

There was a scream off to the side as the man Rolland didn't know tried to run.

The shadows descended from the ceiling then, blocking his path and encircling him.

"Leave him." Cedric commanded, looking him over. "Not-master Elliot, you were behind all this weren't you?"

The young man looked at him malevolently, but the effect was pitiful rather than frightening.

"You've been playing with toys far above your pay grade." Cedric's sneer had never been so chilling.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have. I didn't know what I was getting myself into and then I…I couldn't help myself. Please, please forgive me. I never meant any of it, Magnus made me do it!"

"Did Magnus hurt Sofia?"

The young man seemed taken aback by that and looked up at him bewildered.

"He…he was going to but then she told him about the baby and he wouldn't touch her. He likes them young. That's why he took her black dress, so she'd have to wear the purple one that looks like a little girl's dress, but that only made her look older because she was spilling out of it and…."

Elliot never finished his sentence.

If Rolland had thought he'd seen the depths of hell in Cedric's eyes before he'd been wrong.

Cedric lifted his left hand and Rolland saw the cuff glowing eerie and black again as he reached his hand out towards Elliot's chest.

Rolland did turn away then, unable to watch.

But the screams were enough.

When he turned back he saw the hole in Elliot's chest and Cedric's bloody hand and he knew he'd been right not to look.

Cedric turned to the older Sorcerer then.

"Go home to your family Graylock."

The other man was ashen faced but, with a bravery Rolland couldn't decide was courageous or just plain stupid, he shook his head.

"Not till we find Sofia. I promised her I would help her stay safe until you came. I'm not leaving until I know she's back where she belongs."

Cedric nodded, bending to wipe his hands on Elliot's robes before the three of them exited the throne room.

Making their way to Sofia's room they got James and Bartleby and prepared to ride to the village.

They were outside on the stone steps when they saw a lone man walking over the drawbridge, something clutched to his chest.

The sun was just beginning to set, and he was in shadow until he crossed through the archway onto the Castle's front grounds.

The man was one of Tilly's Highlander's, big and brawny with long black hair and a frame that was all muscled legs and arms and barreled chest. His bigness had the effect of making the burden he carried seem small by comparison. But when the light finally hit him they could see he was carrying the body of a peasant girl dressed in purple.

Rolland felt his stomach start to twist as the Highlander shifted and the woman's limp neck caused her head to lull in their direction.

Time seemed to telescope inward, each moment its own agonizing, endless eternity.

Rolland could only shake his head, the disbelief so complete.

Beside him Cedric fell to his knees.

Dimly he realized Cedric was saying something, whispering a single word over and over again.

"Sofia."


	10. Chapter 10

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Tilly's Highlander placed the body gently on the ground in front of Cedric and began walking away backwards.

"What happened?" It was Rolland.

"When the Shadows passed through the village, they got real close to this one house. There were people inside it, and she come out. She had her wand in hand. She thought the shadows were there to hurt them.

One of them engulfed her, but I was close. I yelled to it that it wasn't supposed to hurt anyone but Magnus's men. It seemed angry, it…it screamed at me, but it let her go.

Once the shadow moved on the people from the house, they come out screaming and crying and surround her. I heard them call her Princess Sofia and beg her to wake up.

Only it was too late, she was already dead.

I…I knew I should bring her to you, your Majesty."

Cedric heard the words, but they hardly registered.

All he could do was stare at her.

It hadn't drunk her soul. The highlander hadn't given it time. And so she hadn't turned into the dried out husk the shadows would normally leave.

Sofia looked just like herself.

Sofia looked beautiful.

A lifeless doll, the blush still in her cheeks, her lips still pink as rose buds, her skin peaches and cream.

Cedric tore his eyes from her face to see his family wand clutched in her hand where it lay over the tiny swell of her belly.

They'd only been separated a week.

He hadn't known, hadn't even suspected.

He'd done this for her, to save her. Because he cared nothing for kingdoms and power any longer, but the thought of living without her for even another hour had been intolerable. Because he loved her with a love so all-consuming every breath he took without her felt like breathing death. Because without her he was lost to darkness and hatred and evil.

He'd done this for her.

And in doing so he'd killed her.

" _Nothing comes without a price in this world….But one day I'm scared the price will be you."_

Cedric heard the long ago words as if they'd floated to him on the wind.

Sofia had been crying in his arms.

She'd told him she was so happy she was scared.

Her mother and father had loved each other like this and she'd believed her father's life had paid the price. She was terrified one day fate would take him from her as it had taken her father from her mother.

But Sofia was so young, how could she know.

Fate never takes the evil.

Cedric didn't know how long he knelt there in front of her body. Time was meaningless without her anyway. But eventually he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Cedric we should take her inside," Rolland again.

Take her inside.

They meant to take her away from him again!

They meant to shut her up in a cold, dark cellar under the castle.

Before shutting her up in a cold, dark box.

Sofia was the light.

She had no place in the dark.

She would wither away in the dark.

Cedric jerked his shoulder away from the hand, his voice rising to a bellow of anguish.

"DON'T TOUCH HER!"

Even without looking he knew the other men had recoiled from him, their fear hastening their movements.

It was then he touched her.

One hand cupping her face, the tips of his fingers tangling into the silk of her hair, as the other caressed the slight swell of her stomach.

He'd killed them both.

His beautiful, brave wife and the baby she carried. The child he hadn't even known existed, his child.

The tears came then. Tracks of them slid down his cheeks, and clung to his chin before dropping onto her face. Wracking sobs followed, shaking his frame even as he shook his head, trying to convince himself she wasn't truly dead.

"Please Sofia, don't leave. I'm here. I came for you. You can't leave me now." Cedric heard someone pleading pathetically only to realize it was himself.

But still she lay there, dead.

When he could bear to look at her no longer he bent down, the hand at her belly, sliding up her side, fingers splaying wide, as the one at her face slid underneath her neck.

His lips touched hers and he felt himself break a little more.

Her lips were still warm.

He heard gasping sobs leave his mouth as he kissed her again and again, trying to take the last of her warmth, the last of her light into his body. Trying to keep this final piece of her forever, even as his mind kept begging her not to go.

Later, Graylock would tell him as he kissed her he'd begun to glow. It had started at his left arm and soon his entire body had given off an eerie light, the aura so bright it was blinding even in the waning light of the afternoon.

And when he was entirely engulfed in this light, it began to bleed to Sofia as well.

All Cedric remembered was kissing her, lost in his grief, trying to memorize the sweetness of her lips, when suddenly they parted on a moan.

He froze, his mouth still touching hers, and it happened again.

Cedric recoiled; sure the last bit of his mind had broken, when he felt her neck shift in his hands.

Pulling her into his lap, cradling her body against his, he called her name.

"Sofia?"

Her eyes were still closed, but her lips began to move.

"Cedric," it was a sigh, the softest sound he'd ever heard, as though his name was a prayer.

They heard it too, and a moment later they were on the other side of her.

Her father, her brother, Graylock and Bartleby, all looking from him to her and back again as her eyelids fluttered.

When they opened, and he saw her beautiful sky blue eyes once more, it sunk in.

Sofia had been dead.

Sofia was alive.

She looked dazed, puzzled as she stared at him and he realized the sun was behind him.

All she must see was a figure in shadow and to her the figure was not the one she expected or wanted.

With his face obscured all she could make out was his hair, which she would deem the wrong length, the wrong color. And his frame, not vastly bigger, but she knew his body, every inch of it, every contour as well as she knew her own. Perhaps better since she knew him not just with her eyes but with her hands and her mouth too.

She would dismiss him as too big, too broad to be the right man and so she turned to her family, gifting them with one of her radiant smiles as she all but ignored him.

"Dad, James, Bartleby. You came!"

"Of course we came sweetheart!" Rolland words were sputtered, tears coursing unashamedly down his cheeks, wonder in his eyes.

Sofia nodded, momentarily contented, before a frown creased her face.

"Where's Cedric?" Her voice was suddenly anxious.

Rolland, James and Bartleby all shared a look between them, before turning back to her.

Cedric saw her anxiety turn to fear.

"Where is he?" Her voice had risen in pitch and she began trying to sit up, to move out of his embrace. "Is he hurt? Is that why you won't tell me?"

James opened his mouth only to close it again without saying anything.

"Oh God! Say something! Is he…is he dead?"

She was up like a shot now all weakness forgotten in her panic. Looking down on her father, brother and uncle and willing them to speak.

"No, he's here Sofia and he's alright." It was Graylock who finally spoke.

Sofia looked at the other sorcerer and he saw her visibly relax.

"Where is he? Can you take me to him?" Sofia was pleading now.

Cedric stood then and backed away slightly so his face would be caught by the light.

"I'm here Sofia." He finally spoke.

She whipped around at the sound of his voice, her face lighting like Wassalia night.

But still she barely looked at him.

As she moved closer, he realized she was trying to see around him, thinking the man she was looking for must be behind him.

When she saw there was no one there she stopped, shock crossing her face. She began to shake her head.

For long moments she just stood there staring at him.

"Who are you?"

Cedric felt his heart, which had only pieced itself back together moments ago, crack a little under her gaze.

They'd told him when he put it on it would change him, but he hadn't understood the changes would be physical as well as internal.

And when it was done, when the thing was bonded to his arm, he'd looked in the mirror for hours, watching as everything familiar melted away.

Cordelia had been behind him. Her arms wrapped around him, her form pressed to his back, giving him the strength to stand the pain, whispering that soon it would be alright.

"This is who you really are," she told him. "Who you would have been if you'd been given the light of day instead of Goodwin's freezing shadow to grow up in. Don't fear it my beautiful brother, this is who you were meant to be."

How often in his life had he dreamt of being strong, of being powerful, of being attractive? How often since he'd fallen in love with her had he looked at Sofia and felt shame at the differences between them.

And now he was all those things he always dreamed of, she looked at him like a stranger. She was trying to make him disappear because all she wanted was her skinny, awkward, ugly husband who she inexplicably loved and somehow thought perfect.

"Sofia it's me." He finally answered her.

He knew it was his voice which caught her.

His form was different but his voice was the same. And she loved his voice.

Moving closer to him she reached out a hand only to pull it back.

She was so near him now he could feel her heat. It made him want to grab her. To press her to him and burry his face in her hair, to kiss every part of her, because she was alive and she was his, and he needed her.

But he was afraid to frighten her.

Her hand came up again, and he watched it as it brushed against his shoulder, the ends of his hair running through her fingers.

Then it moved to his bangs, fingering the dark strands there, before slipping to his cheek.

His eyes met hers then and suddenly he saw recognition in her face.

"It…it is you." Her words were tiny puffs of breath against his face as her other hand came up to cup his cheek.

His face was in her hands now as she closed the distance between them.

Sofia held his gaze, her own still trying to understand what was going on.

"How?"

"I found magic strong enough to defeat Elliot, to bring you back to me. I had to leave some things behind for it, but he's dead, Magnus is dead, your father is king again, and you're alive."

She nodded her head. Her face inching closer to his.

It was like the first time they kissed all over again.

No, that wasn't true. It was like _a_ first kiss, but not theirs. Their first kiss had been explosion of desire. There had been nothing soft or tentative about it.

Sofia had declared her love. She'd broken down his barriers, and their mouths had met as though they were starving for each other, because they had been.

This was nothing like that.

This was full of uncertainty, full of hesitation and unease.

But he wouldn't turn away from it.

When her lips finally pressed against his, he stayed still for agonizing minutes as she explored.

Then he felt it, the moment his mouth opened at her request and she tasted him.

He felt her shocked intake of breath, felt her hands tremble against his cheeks.

She began to press herself against him, as if to try and figure out how their bodies would fit now.

Cedric felt sudden sadness when he realized it wasn't the same. She was so much smaller against him. His body was so much harder now, not seeming to yield and mold itself to her curves at it had before.

He didn't know how long they stayed like that, but eventually it wasn't enough.

He'd been without her so long. She'd died and come back to life in his arms. He'd feared she wouldn't believe he was himself or that she would recoil from him.

He still feared it.

But she was in his arms now and he had no intention of letting her go.

Putting and arm around her back and one under her knees, Cedric lifted Sofia into his arms and began walking up the palace steps, heedless of their audience or what they thought.

But when he would have gone in her arms tightened around him.

"No, please, I can't go back in there. It feels like a prison." Her eyes pleaded with him.

"Where do you want to go?" He asked, his eyes devouring her.

"Our garden."

Cedric didn't jostle her to find a wand, he simply thought of her beautiful little garden.

The place where she'd taken her friends for her tea party, the one he'd had to wear a yellow ribbon for. The garden where she'd taken him for picnics and tea and simple lying about more times during her apprenticeship than he ever remembered being outside the entire rest of his life.

And suddenly they were there.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I had such a time with this chapter. I really wanted to add a sweet love scene but it seemed so weird, like if my husband came home one day and looked like a totally different person, no matter how hot, I'd be really unnerved and not sure how to handle that.**

 **So it took forever and what finally inspired me was a song by Celtic singer Maev. I've been listening to it pretty non-stop while writing this story so I thought why not. I'm not usually the biggest fan of song fics, but I figured it might be forgivable with these characters since they do break into song at least once each week. So I hope it's not 'I'm going to vomit' ridiculous!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Sofia looked around in astonishment as colorful butterflies fluttered by and showers of white and pink petals rained over them from the nearby apple blossom trees.

Cedric hadn't used a wand or spoken a spell and Sofia hadn't felt the familiar pull of moving magically. Yet here they were in her garden.

Cedric kneeled down, lowering them to the soft grass, but refusing to let her go.

Sofia wanted to ask him how he'd done it, but felt so overwhelmed she couldn't make her mouth form the words.

She was in his lap now, one of his hands holding her to him as the other came up to cup her face.

Their eyes locked and Sofia found herself searching his once more.

"It's truly me Sofia." Cedric's voice was soft, sad.

"I believe you…it's just…" Her voice trailed off.

"You can't love me like this."

It wasn't a question and Sofia saw his anguish before he nodded, as though he expected as much, and turned to look up at the sinking sun.

Sofia studied him, trying to find the man she loved in the man before her. The differences where startling, but underneath them she began to see pieces of her Cedric.

His features were still the same, his lovely brown eyes, his long pointy nose, his lips that were thin but somehow sweetly soft all at the same time. She saw each of them clearly but couldn't understand how the sum of all those parts seemed to equal something so different now.

What power had he gained that it had changed him so utterly?

The thought made her shudder.

Elliot hadn't been strong or gifted. He'd just been playing with magic far more powerful, far more volatile, than he seemed to understand. It had given him the might to make his malevolent dreams reality, but it would have turned on him eventually.

Cedric was neither so shortsighted nor so simple.

He was well aware such power came at a price.

They both were.

They had never practiced dark magic, but one of the traits they shared was an insatiable thirst for knowledge. And so they'd learned what they could. What hadn't been banished to Helhiem to be willfully forgotten.

Yet nothing she'd learned had ever led her to believe the transformation she saw before her was possible, or the ability to cast spells without word or wand.

It terrified her.

Sofia remembered the shapes, the thing she'd fought in the village. It had surrounded her and when she'd been inside it, she'd known it was a creature of pure evil.

She'd thought Elliot had conjured it.

But now….

Cedric had vowed once, if anything or anyone ever tried to part them, he would come for her with all the forces of hell at his back. He'd told her nothing standing between them would live when he was done.

She'd thought it romantic when he'd said it. Cedric's darkness was a part of him after all. A part she admitted only rarely she was wildly attracted too, even if it scared her.

But she had never imagined he meant those words literally.

Sofia felt a sudden frantic need to know what Cedric had done. What'd he given. What would be taken from him for this. But as she looked into his eyes, the eyes she'd loved for more than half her life, she knew it would have to wait.

Cedric was retreating from her, convincing himself her love had left him.

Though she had a hard time recognizing his face and form she could see his turmoil clearly.

One week, one tumultuous, unthinkable week was all it took for him to revert to someone who resembled the man she'd met in her youth.

The Cedric who believed no one would ever truly value him. The Cedric who believed he was forever barred from the happiness others took for granted. The Cedric who believed even her love was a transient thing, given only when she wanted something from him and rescinded immediately afterward.

Sofia had thought he'd left that Cedric behind.

But now she began to wonder if he'd always been hiding deep within her husband, pushed down by her ever present devotion, but never completely banished.

He was here now, this echo from their past, clawing his way back out the pit he'd been exiled to.

She would never have admitted it aloud, but seeing that Cedric gave her the strength to shatter the paralysis which had held her since they'd entered the garden.

Her husband, her Cedric, had given the god's only knew what to save her.

And now _he_ needed _her_.

He needed to remember her love would never leave him.

Looking down she saw his ring glinting on her finger, just below her own.

Pulling it off, she took his left hand and placed it back where it belonged.

As she did Sofia opened her mouth to tell how much she loved him, but something whispered to her that simple words wouldn't penetrate the enormity of the dejection overwhelming him.

It came out of her then, without her ever making a conscious decision.

"One I love

Two he loves

Three he's true to me."

The song was shrouded in painful memories.

It was a song her mother used to sing to her father. It was branded on her memory, but Sofia rarely let it leave her lips. She would only put aside the pain it caused to sing it for Cedric. Because she knew she felt for him what her mother had felt for her father when she sang it.

"All of my friends fell out with me

Because I kept your company.

But let them say whatever they will

I love my love with a free good will."

Cedric eyes slid back to her then.

Sofia could see he was afraid to believe her, even as he drew her closer, seemingly unable to resist the siren call of her song.

Slowly, as though she were afraid to startle a wild animal, she untied the cords that tied his cloak, letting the black wool fall to the grass behind him.

Bringing her hands to his face, she caressed his cheeks, letting her fingers tangle into his hair and push back the newly lengthened strands, before sliding her palms down his mail covered chest. When she reached the hem of the protective covering, she slipped her hands beneath it.

The linked metal was heavy, but when he understood what she meant to do, he took it in his own hands, pulling it off as though it weighed nothing.

When it was gone, he stared at her, his eyes wary even now.

"They tell me he's poor

They tell me I'm young

I tell them all to hold their tongue.

If they could part the sand from sea

They never could part my love from me."

Sofia stripped him of the shirt that lay under the mail next.

The sun had begun to set now and dusk was falling over the garden as she pulled the laces that tied his pants.

Cedric sucked in a breath as though he finally realized what it was she meant to do.

"Sofia!" His voice was a shaky whisper, still so unsure.

"When I'm awake, I find no rest

Until his head lays on my breast

When I'm asleep I'm dreaming of

My own, my dear, my one true love."

Sofia pulled a little away to undo the laces that tied her girdle, taking it off and pulling her dress over her head in two quick motions.

She saw desire flare hot and white in her husband's eyes.

With a gentle grip she took his hands in her own.

Slowly, slowly she brought them to her body, placing them on her face, guiding them downward, down the column of her neck, over her collarbones, over the swells of her breasts.

One she held, molding it so he was cupping her breast, his fingers sliding over her nipple. The other she kept guiding downwards, stopping to graze over the slight swell of her belly, over the life they'd made growing inside her, before pushing it lower.

Sofia watched Cedric take in a steadying breath as their joined hands came to rest between her legs, cupping her dampening sex.

His hand started to move on her then, fingers dipping between her folds, playing at her entrance, coaxing her wetness, and using it to slicken her nub so he could rub teasing circles over it.

"When the fire to ice will run

And when the tide no longer turns

And when the rocks melt with the sun

My love for you will have just begun"

She felt three of Cedric's fingers slide inside her, making her cry out.

She began moving on him, soaking his hand in her need as she thrust against those fingers, desperate to relieve the ache that only seemed to grow stronger and stronger.

Sofia's own hands returned to him, caressing the sides of his face, bringing his mouth to hers.

"Love me." She pleaded, before sealing their lips.

Nothing would ever change her love for him. She'd always believed it, but she _knew_ it now.

No matter how he'd changed, no matter what he'd done, her love, her desire, her need for him was always and ever a constant. One unchangeable event in a world where everything else was in flux.

Cedric gripped her hard then, shifting them so she lay underneath him. His cloak was between her and the grass, as he loomed over her, the ends of his hair brushing her skin.

His pants and boots seemed to disappear without any visible effort and then he was there, settling between her thighs.

A moan of pleasure escaped as she realized that part of him hadn't been changed. It was hard and warm, long and thick and so familiar, so blessedly right.

Taking his weight on one arm, Cedric's hand slipped to the back of her neck, lifting her head.

She brought one of her own hands to tangle into the strands of hair at the back of his neck, and their foreheads came to rest against each other as he thrust into her.

"One I love

Two he loves

Three he's true to me"

She breathed the words into his mouth while the hand that had held her hip slid to her bottom. Cupping the flesh he lifted her slightly off the ground, bringing them ever closer, sinking him even deeper.

"Cedric!" his name was ripped from her mouth as he began to move in a slow, strong rhythm that matched her song.

Sofia breathed hard, feeling full, feeling whole, for the first time in what had only been days but felt like a small lifetime.

Wrapping her legs around him, she gave herself to him, concentrating not on the things that were different but the things that would never change.

The way his eyes seemed to see straight into her soul.

The way he tasted when his mouth opened to her.

The way he knew when her release was near and sped his movements so they would come together.

They writhed against each other, crying out as Sofia's body clenched around him, her head falling back, her neck still in his hands.

She felt tingles as Cedric nestled his face into the bend where her neck met her shoulder, nuzzling his nose and lips against the column of her throat.

For the moment peace settled around them and Sofia opened her eyes to stare at the stars above, her hands caressing Cedric's back, sighing in contentment as her fingers slipped in the sweat of his exertion.

"One I love

Two he loves

And three he's true to me"


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I just wanted to thank everyone who's been following this story and especially those who've reviewed. It means a lot to me!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric made his way up the endless stone steps to his tower, Sofia asleep in his arms.

They'd made love under the stars for most of the night, and when exhaustion had won out, she'd fallen asleep while he held her.

He realized offhandedly he should be tired too, and hungry. He hadn't eaten or slept since before the march to Ramblingham.

But he wasn't. The cuff had apparently already changed him to the point where neither of those mortal needs were a concern any longer.

Looking down on his sleeping wife, nestled warm and sweet and _alive_ in his arms he wondered how long he could keep the truth of what he'd done from her.

She seemed to be utterly unaware that just a few hours ago she'd been dead. He felt fairly certain her father, brother, and uncle wouldn't be bringing it up in conversation anytime soon, but even without that particular piece of knowledge he knew he had much to answer for.

And Sofia wasn't one to let things go.

She hadn't demanded answers yet because she knew he needed her love and reassurance right now, but eventually she would ask and he had no idea what he would tell her. The idea of lying to her was upsetting. Other than his misdeeds while pursuing the amulet, Cedric hadn't ever been dishonest with her about anything.

Even after years of living in the light of her goodness he knew he probably wouldn't give too much thought to misleading or manipulating others, though he almost never found himself in a position to need to anymore, but lying to Sofia…that was something altogether different.

It would be like deceiving the other half of himself. How could he look at her, smile with her, laugh with her, love with her if there was deceit between them?

Opening the door to his workshop Cedric stopped short.

The place was a warzone. The floor littered with the broken, torn pieces of his life. He felt anger rising in him, but it had no outlet. The little shitprick who'd done this was already dead.

Closing his eyes, Cedric went inside himself, bidding his power to rise.

He had no doubt his father, Rolland, maybe even James and Bartleby (if they bothered to think about it at all) believed the cuff was some magical talisman that had given him new powers. He found himself wishing it were that simple, than he would have less to fear when Sofia asked for answers.

Its true purpose was all together more unpleasant.

For now though, it had given him strength and beauty and helped to strip away the barriers, the wall Sofia had chipped at over the years, but that probably nothing right or good on this earth could break down. It let him access that well inside himself where his abilities lived.

When Cedric opened his eyes again the room had been put to rights, everything exactly as it had been before all of this started.

He walked through to their bedroom and laid Sofia down on the bed, covering her and setting a fire in the grate before walking back to the workshop.

He might not need food or sleep any longer, but the desire for a bath was nearly overwhelming.

Stripping himself of everything but his wedding ring and the new piece of jewelry which would never leave his arm, Cedric conjured the necessities and then slid into the hot water.

He'd just laid his head back, relaxing into the steamy liquid, when he saw it, a formless shape hovering at the window.

It seemed to stare at him a moment before slithering its way to foot of the tub.

"It's done. We return to the mountain now." It whispered without the benefit of a face or a mouth.

Cedric nodded.

The thing laughed a little, if the sound that emanated from it could be called a laugh. Whatever it was Cedric knew it was entirely at his expense.

"We will see you again Cedric the sold."

"Not for many years, I hope." Cedric didn't want to shiver, but it was impossible to stifle the tingle that ran up his spine.

"They do not go back on their word. You will have this one lifetime, enjoy it."

Suddenly the shape was gone and Cedric was left in the ever brightening light of dawn.

He looked at his wrist and the reminder of the bargain he'd made. It was glowing softly, almost benignly. He'd been afraid when Sofia had drawn breath he would be punished swiftly for the transgression. But it seemed as though he'd gotten away with his unintentional mistake.

He knew he would live from this day on with dread, waiting for the moment when he would be expected to uphold his end of the bargain he'd made. But he couldn't find it in his heart to regret what he'd done, any of it. Sofia was worth every horror that awaited him and more.

.o~O*O~o.o~O*O~o.o~O*O~o.

The next few days were a flurry of activity.

His mother and father brought the entire family back to Enchancia castle and Cedric watched with tears in his eyes as his wife and daughter were reunited.

Miranda had thrown herself into Sofia's arms and the two embraced for long minutes before Sofia lifted their daughter into her arms. She'd brought their happy child to him, trying to get her to hug him as well, but Miranda had emphatically refused. His poor little girl had become confused and afraid once more as she asked where her father was, only to have Sofia gently tell her he was right there.

It broke his heart all over again, but he hadn't pushed her. His little witch had been through so much already, it was very likely she simply wouldn't be able to handle this as well. So instead he'd let Miranda cling to her mother and busied himself with helping to set things right in the village and the surrounding countryside.

The day after Rolland had called him into his study.

The devastation Magnus and his army had wrought was a serious threat to Enchancia even now they were dead and gone. So many people had been killed and so much land had been destroyed there was a real possibility the people left would starve unless the land was healed.

Cedric had been grateful for the opportunity to leave the castle.

Rolland, James, Bartleby and even Graylock, especially Graylock, seemed utterly frightened of him now. While it was somewhat satisfying, like a soothing balm over an old scar, to see Rolland so wary of him, he knew Sofia had picked up on it. It was fuel on the fire of her curiosity which he knew wouldn't be silenced much longer.

And so he'd never been more grateful to mount a horse the next morning, Sofia and Miranda by his side.

They would be gone for weeks, visiting village after village. Using magic to restore the land, and letting Sofia use the special magic only she possessed to cheer the hearts of people scarred by a week in hell.

They had been traveling for three days when they entered the village of Carrolton.

As with every other place which had seen Magnus's zombie troops and his death shadows, the people where afraid. But it hardly took Sofia more than an hour to bring them out.

She healed the sick and injured while Cedric began restoring the village.

When they finished they'd conjured enough food to keep the villagers fed for the next few weeks. And Cedric had ridden out alone to resurrect the fields.

Everywhere they went he was careful to always hold a wand when he did any sort of magic, but he knew he wasn't fooling her. In truth Cedric was only trying to fool the people they spent a few days with before they moved on.

Most people still greeted him as a hero, knowing it was 'the prince' who had raised a magical army to liberate the kingdom, but there was already gossip. The whispers hadn't reached his ears yet, but he'd seen the looks. The few in each crowd who shooed their families away when he came near. The ones who stepped back when he stepped forward.

He had no doubt when the murmurs became shouts he would hear he was a demon from hell, that he had always been strange, sinister, someone not feared only because his reputation for incompetence was even greater than his reputation for malevolence.

Now…now he would be feared.

It was nothing to be much concerned about when they stayed in no one place for more than a day or two. Sofia's natural radiance and light calmed everyone they came in contact with, and by the time they left, most everyone was grateful to them.

But it made him worry about what would happen when they returned to the Isles.

As he rode back into the village he found the townsfolk had given them the finest house to spend the night in. It had belonged to a wealthy merchant, but like so many other people he and his family were no longer among the living.

Cedric entered to find Sofia stoking the fire.

The smile on her face faltered slightly when she first caught sight of him. She still wasn't used to his appearance, but it was only a momentary thing. Then she was coming towards him, arms outstretched.

"Dearest." He whispered in her ear as he put his arm around her.

Cedric wondered if he would ever look at Sofia again without seeing her dead on the ground in front of him. He tightened his arms around her, inhaling the lilac scent of her hair and squeezing the soft warmth of her against him.

"I was getting worried about you." Sofia tipped up on her toes and kissed him long and soft. "Are you hungry?"

She turned to the table where she'd laid out food for them.

He hadn't told her yet he didn't need to eat. He didn't count it a lie though. If Sofia hadn't asked than Cedric continued to tell himself he wasn't deceiving her. He knew it would only be worse the longer he put it off, but he couldn't bring himself to start the conversation.

He feared, even though it had all been for her, she wouldn't be able to find forgiveness in her heart for what he'd done. He knew it was already straining her moral nature to its breaking point to forget he'd outright murdered two men. Not because she didn't understand people were killed in war, but because they both knew his actions had been purely vengeful.

So he let her lead him to the table, determined to eat sawdust if it would make her happy.

Cedric was pulling out a chair when it happened.

There was a searing pain at his wrist, and the cuff lit, its luminescence visible through his glove, shirt, and robe.

He doubled over, a horse cry leaving his mouth.

"Cedric, CEDRIC!"

He heard Sofia's voice as if it were coming from a great distance away, even though he knew she was at his side. Her hands were trying to hold him as he fell to his knees.

"Get away, get away now!" He gasped as pain overtook him.

He knew what was happening but he hadn't expected it so soon. He was supposed to have more time! How had they figured out he'd broken the bargain?

Cedric felt Sofia's arms winding around him.

No, no, no she had to get away. He'd almost hurt Cordelia and she'd known what to expect.

Cedric tried to speak again, to tell Sofia to run, but he was no longer in control of himself.

"Cedric, please tell me what's going on? Please?" He could hear the terror in her voice.

"Please Sofia go!" He bit out before screaming again in pain.

He felt her hands on his arm. Trembling fingers pulled back the sleeves of his robe and shirt before ripping away his glove.

"OH GOD!"

He didn't want to look but he couldn't help following Sofia's horrified gaze to his wrist. The cuff wasn't just glowing, it was imbedding itself into Cedric's arm, fusing itself under his skin.

He was in so much pain he couldn't get the words out, or pull himself away before she took the part that was still visible and tried to rip it off.

Without the consent of his mind Cedric's other hand came out swiftly. He watched the back of his hand make contact with Sofia's face, sending her back into the table as he screamed in agony.

There was a sickening cracking noise to accompany Sofia's head connecting with the wood of the table leg.

"SOFIA!"

He tried to move, to get to her, but the pain was paralyzing. He could only crouch there watching as she lay stunned, a red trickle sliding down her face.

Blood.

Cedric's screams echoed off the walls. The physical pain was nothing now to the anguish of knowing he'd hurt her.

Suddenly she was stumbling to her knees, weakly crawling back to him, a trail of blood stretching out behind her on the wooden floor.

She was over him again as they both collapsed in a heap on the floor.

"Cedric!" He looked up at her, trying to focus on the face he loved more than anything else in the world.

"Sofia you have to leave. I'll kill you, I can't control it. Please you have to get away." His words were bitten out between gasps for air.

"I'm not leaving you, Cedric, not ever again! Gods, what's happening to you?"

She was frantic now, her hands fluttering over him ineffectually as he writhed beneath her.

"They're…ahhhh… extracting their payment early. Because…Ahhh….because I…I broke the rules!"

"Who? What payment?"

Before Cedric could answer it happened. His right hand, the one not wearing the cuff, vanished.

"AHHHH!" He screamed again, his eyes going wide as he held up his arm, which seemed to be disappearing before their eyes.

"The cuff, it's a shackle. I…I traded my life for the power to stop Magnus…for the shadows!"

"WHAT?" She was fully on top of him now, nearly strangling him in her terror, as though her mere will could keep him from disappearing.

As she held him, the amulet, which was now back in its rightful place on her neck, fell onto his skin.

Suddenly there was another glow in the room as the magic necklace came to life.

Cedric stopped screaming and became still as a wind began to pick up in the room. The air around them felt charged, swirling with energy and the sparkling magic that lived in the amulet burst forth.

Sofia watched Cedric's entire body seize one last time and suddenly the cuff fell off, broken into two pieces which smoked as though they were heated. Where it had been attached to his arm there was a burnt wound, the skin cauterized.

The light from the amulet encompassed him then, growing bright enough that Sofia had to use one of her hands to cover her eyes.

Then the necklace went dormant again.

"Sofia," he whispered.

Cedric watched as her fingers parted so she could peak between them.

"Cedric?" Her hands were suddenly on him, brushing his bangs from his forehead before running over his face, neck and chest.

He gave her a raised eyebrow and suddenly she was on top of him, hugging him and kissing him.

"You're you again!" She exclaimed before burying her face in his neck.

He rose up slowly, rearranging her so she was sitting in his lap.

"I hurt you." Cedric was overcome by remorse as he looked at the blood on her face.

Sofia pulled away slightly, lifting her skirt and grabbing her wand from its customary place in her garter. She raised the wand to her head, but before she could say anything he took it from her hands.

"Sanitatum," Cedric touched the end of the wand to her temple and watched as the cut healed itself and the bruise faded to nothing. "I'm sorry." He whispered into her skin as he kissed the spot where her injury had been.

Her only response was to hug him again, rubbing herself against him.

He looked down and saw she was right. He was his old self again. Both hands blessedly there, attached to skinny arms, spindly legs crossed underneath her. He reached up and touched his hair, short again and probably the right colors.

He was surprised to find he wasn't sorry.

Maybe it was the way Sofia was holding him, as though they'd just reunited this very moment, or the way her body fit against his…the right way again. But this was who he was, this was who Sofia had loved almost all her life, despite what Cordellia thought, this was who he was meant to be.

She pulled back now, looking down on her amulet.

Cupping it in her hands she kissed the purple jewel.

"Thank you." She whispered to it.

Then she looked up at him, smiling as though she'd gotten the best present ever, but only for a moment.

"It can't be that easy though, can it?"

She was looking at him with those eyes that were somehow older and wiser than her twenty-five years. A look she'd given him from time to time as far back as he could remember. A look that meant his time was up.

He'd thought the night he admitted to spending years trying to steal her amulet, he'd moved past the worst thing he would ever have to be honest about. If only he could have seen the future.

"No, it probably isn't going to be that easy. If anything it'll be worse now. Not only have I broken the rules, but now I've broken the bargain too."

Sofia took his face in her hands. He could see confusion at his words, but dawning behind them was another, stronger emotion: fear, terrible fear.

"Cedric you have to tell me what you've done."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: I'm not sure if I'm happy or not that 'Gone With the Wand' had to air as I was writing this story. On the one hand it's one of my favorite episodes now. On the other it totally ruined all my plans for Cordelia, who I imagined as a crazy, evil, seductive mess who had rather unsavory feelings for her brother… thanks Disney. I guess she's still crazy….**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Under different circumstances Cedric might have laughed. Sorcerers were a dramatic lot even in the most banal of times. But given something to be dramatic about they almost invariably went to absurd extremes.

As he approached the twin demons: two enormous, winged, obsidian statues on either side of the road, Cedric felt nothing could have so clearly announced he'd reached his destination unless they put up a sign which read "this way to the bad guys".

The trees and vegetation had begun to die several miles ago and now the barren, rocky waste in front of him sat beneath a perpetual rain cloud which spit thunder and lightning but never released a drop of water.

Above his head, perched in the dead, leafless trees carrion birds stared down at him with malevolent eyes, waiting for an easy meal. No doubt they hoped he was another innocent who'd lost his way, or perhaps another ignorant naïve enough to believe gaining entrance to the Tower of Hell was as easy as knocking on the door.

He wasn't sorry to disappoint them, but then, from the look of the clean picked bones lying in the brown grass, they were more greedy than hungry.

Dismounting his horse, Cedric searched the ground until he found the perfect one.

Lifting the smooth, round rock from its place by a cracked skull, he pulled out his wand.

Wormwood would be hurt if he knew what Cedric was about to do. But then he would never bring Wormy to a place like this anyway, so there was very little reason to feel guilt for this betrayal of fidelity to his familiar. Perhaps he would make a female.

If he was able to get what he wanted and save Sofia he would gift her with it.

Despite her affinity for almost all animals she had yet to find one she wanted to join with. If she liked it she could take the bird. Then she would have the added power of such a bond and, since he and Wormwood were entwined, it would mean Wormwood would finally have a mate.

Swirling his wand over the rock he spoke the spell.

"Ravenna Natus"

The rock began to shake and then, as if it were an egg and not a stone, cracks appeared. Suddenly it crumbled to nothing and standing in his hand, her claws curling around his palm was a full grown raven. She was slightly smaller than Wormwood, her skein a fantastical dark purple the color of a black rose. Her eyes, dark as ink, stared back at him with the uncanny intelligence which ravens possessed in general and conjured animals boasted particularly.

She seemed to be asking him why he'd created her.

He moved her to his shoulder and heard the scratching sound as her claws dug into the links of his shirt. He hadn't wanted to waste a moment and so he was still in the leather pants and chainmail he'd worn to Ramblignham.

"You must fly to the summit," he told her pointing to small looking structure hundreds of feet above their heads. "Find the sorceress Cordelia and give her this."

Lifting his wand once more he spoke a few words and a yellow sash appeared in his hand, the same length and color as the ones he used for his bowties.

The bird bent her head and took the sash in her beak, before pushing off his shoulder and soaring beyond his sight.

Now there was nothing to do but wait.

As the minutes ticked by Cedric felt himself growing tense. It was entirely possible she wouldn't see him. That she planned to vindictively let him stew down here, waiting on her, like a penitent hoping for absolution, until finally enough time passed even he would have to accept there would never be any forgiveness.

Cedric felt anger join his anxiety.

He had nothing to be sorry for. She was the one who'd abandoned her family, so entirely seduced by the desire for forbidden knowledge that eventually nothing else mattered, not even her own daughter.

Still, it would be just like her to hold a grudge because he hadn't let her leave without telling her what he thought. She'd always hated when she couldn't ignore what she didn't want to hear.

Even if she came he knew she wouldn't make it easy.

As much as they'd bickered and fought as children they had loved each other once.

But she wasn't that woman anymore. She wasn't his sister anymore. She was a creature consumed by darkness. A terrifying parable, showing him what he might have become had Sofia not saved him from his own darkness.

Or perhaps she was simply a premonition of what was still to come.

Cedric's heart clenched.

He'd ridden all night, not stopping for food or water, desperate to get here before the messenger he'd instructed Rolland to send reached Enchancia castle. He had to be here, had to speak to them before Sofia opened that letter, before his ring dropped to the floor at her feet and she read the lies he'd penned with his own hand.

Closing his eyes he prayed she wouldn't believe it. She had to know he would come for her. Had to know he would never, NEVER put her aside to save his own skin.

In his forty years he'd been a coward more often than he'd been a hero. He'd been a bungling fool more often than he'd been a dazzling success. And he'd been on the side of evil more than he'd been on the side of righteousness.

But then he'd stepped out onto the steps of Enchancia castle to see a crown placed on the head of a little girl and the course of his life had veered abruptly.

She'd been such an annoying, pestering thorn. Enchantingly beautiful and irritatingly good all at the same time, he'd almost hated her. He'd certainly wanted to.

But she wouldn't let him.

In that way that was unique to her, she'd denied him the ability to detest her and then waged a battle at the door of his heart, a proper siege which lasted years. Taking away his the ability to escape, to regroup, weakening him until he had no choice but to surrender to her.

First he'd given her his friendship, but she wouldn't accept half a conquest. She'd taken his offering as a spoil of victory and then demanded more.

So he'd given her his knowledge too, but that wasn't enough to satisfy her either.

She was greedy for nothing less than total surrender.

And so in the end he'd yielded everything he was to her, his heart, his soul, his body, his very being. And in submitting he'd found himself freed.

Freed from a lifetime of loneliness, bitterness, cruelty and hatred. Free of the darkness which threatened to swallow him until he found himself with a gallows' noose tightening around his neck.

From all this she'd saved him and as a reward for his surrender she'd given him all of herself.

She had to know he would never betray that gift for anything.

She had to.

Suddenly there was a weight on his shoulder and a cawing in his ear. The raven had returned, without the sash. Cedric felt his heart drop into his feet and fear rise up like a tide within him. If she wouldn't help him what would he do?

He was quickly becoming overwhelmed by hopelessness when he saw movement beyond the demons.

A lone figure in black walked slowly through the gloom. At first the figure was hazy, as though it was not quite formed, but as it grew closer he began to see it clearly.

Her dress was little more than a black rag, but he recognized it. It was the tattered remains of the beautiful black silk she'd worn on the day she appeared on the isle with Calista crying silently behind her.

In six years she'd never changed it.

Her hair was wild, tangled around her face and falling in matted locks around her arms.

The look in her eyes was ever shifting. One moment he saw coherence, anger, love, and superiority all swirling in there depths, the next she seemed puzzled by her whereabouts and unsure of who he was.

She stopped when she was standing between the two dark statues and he wondered if she was even able to cross that invisible line.

"Cedric? Is something wrong with Calista? Is that why you're here?" Her voice was agitated, and as he watched her worry the yellow sash between her fingers he felt his anger melt away to be replaced by pity.

After all, what right had he to judge her any longer when he was probably about to share her fate.

"Don't worry yourself Cordi, Calista is fine. She's an Apprentice of the Hall now, one of the best they've ever had according to Ignatius."

He saw her visibly relax, only to turn suspicious and wary.

"Then why are you here? I'm not going back you know." She backed away slightly as though she wanted to dive behind one of the demons.

He put his hands up showing her she had nothing to fear.

"I'm not here to take you home. I came because I need your help."

A triumphant if unhinged smile broke on her face.

"Enchancia is in the hands of a mad King who's seized the thrown. He has a black mage. I need the power to defeat him."

Cedric watched as his words seemed to drift past her, of less concern than a pebble in her shoe might have been.

"He has Sofia. Please help me!"

However he'd expected her to react, as much as he'd tried to steal himself by remembering she was insane, it still hurt to watch her double over in crazed laughter, her bony shoulders shaking with mirth, as her filthy hair fell around her face.

"I should have known this was a fool's errand." He said, turning to mount his horse.

It was a bluff, but he hoped it would have the desired effect. He didn't have time to prostrate himself in supplication until she felt he'd adequately debased himself. Though he knew he would if it came to it. He had nowhere else to turn.

"WAIT!" Her scream echoed off the rocks, the vibrations making his insides rattle.

He turned back to see her, one hand outstretched, beckoning to him as she began walking backwards.

Taking the bird from his shoulders he sent her into the air, knowing he might still not cross that invisible line and live.

Cordelia had stopped moving now, ten feet behind the demons, her hand still motioning for him to follow.

Cedric looked up at the stone guardians of hell and felt a moment of paralyzing fear. His next step could be his last. He wondered off handedly if he would feel it when they struck him down or if he would simply cease to exist like a conjured object being extinguished.

The desire to run in the opposite direction was almost ungovernable. His heart was pounding, his palms were sweating and the coward inside him was shouting for him to save himself.

"Cedric?" He heard Cordelia's confusion but it was his own hand that caught his attention, the circle of light colored skin where his ring should have been.

Closing his eyes, he touched the line on his finger and thought of Sofia as his foot slid in the dirt, past the base of the statues.

Cedric crouched a little waiting for the searing pain that would signal his end, but after seemingly endless moments in which nothing happened he opened his eyes and shifted his weight sliding awkwardly so that all of him was standing behind the Tower's sentinels.

Cordelia smiled at him and turned her back now, sure he would continue to follow her.

There were more statues on the jagged path that led up to the tower.

They stared at him with unnervingly sentient eyes. Sometimes Cordelia spoke to them, other times she said nothing, but each time they passed one and he continued to draw breath he sent up thanks to the fates.

He knew all too well he could still fail.

And if he did he wouldn't be allowed to simply walk back down the mountain. If he failed now his daughter would be, for all intents and purposes, an orphan. His wife would remain a prisoner. And her family, who he often pretended he didn't care for, would eventually be discovered and hunted down.

The bridge to the fortress was down, the doors wide open.

As they crossed he began to hear whispers, but even when they entered the inky, damp gloom of the fortress he saw no one.

The sounds grew louder, enough so he could pick out words here and there: brother, prince, conflicted, talented, stifled, weak, desperate.

Finally they stopped in a circular room, not unlike his tower, but this one contained nothing but three chairs, each with a different figure carved into the ebony wood of their high backs: a dragon, a snake, and a Cerberus.

Again Cedric couldn't help but sneer at the melodrama.

He might have said something, but was struck dumb with shock when his sister left his side to take the dragon chair.

Two other figures slid into the room. Much like Cordelia they appeared to be dressed in the tattered remains of whatever they were wearing when they came here.

Cedric had once told Sofia the oldest sorcerer he knew of had managed to remain among the living for three centuries. He wasn't sure if he would call any of these people truly alive, but if the clothes of the man in the Cerberus chair where authentic he would have to amend that statement by several more centuries.

"What is it you want?" The woman in the snake chair asked him.

Cedric looked at Cordelia and the other two, not knowing if he should tell them everything or if they already knew and regaling them with the entire story would merely annoy them.

"Enchancia has been invaded. I need the power to take it back." He said, hoping direct and to the point was what they wanted.

The woman, who moved as though she were ancient and weary, yet stared at him with piercing, sapphire eyes set in a strangely young face shook her head.

"That's not what you want." She said dismissively.

"What is it you want?" The man in the Cerberus chair asked now.

Cedric felt his brow wrinkle. Were they mocking him? Did they not believe him? What answer did they want him to give?

"I…I…My wife is a prisoner of the King who took Enchancia. I want the power to get her back."

The man shook his head as the woman had before him.

"That's not what you want." He said, his tone exasperated.

"What is it you want?" It was Cordelia who asked him now.

Cedric felt himself begin to shake. He had the feeling this was his last chance to tell them whatever it was that they wanted to hear.

He looked down at his feet, his mind searching for the right answer.

He wanted exactly what he'd asked for. What more was there?

Cordelia was staring at him intently, her eyes blisteringly coherent now. There was something in that look, something that reminded him of their childhood.

Cedric returned her glare, nearly trapped in her gaze, as a memory floated through his head…

The day after his tenth birthday, Goodwin had given him a brand new wand.

To anyone else it might have seemed like an inconsequential gift, but to a boy whose dearest wish was to show his father his worth as a sorcerer it had seemed like a sign. And in his way, young Cedric had read too much into it, believing it was his emotionally distant father's way of saying he believed in him.

His mother had given him a brand new robe in his favorite color, purple, and because he was a 'man' now, as his mother had dotingly informed him, she'd given him a beautiful yellow satin sash and showed him how to tie it in a bow.

"Oh my handsome Cedikins!" She'd exclaimed fawningly when he'd tried on the outfit for her.

Cordelia was seven and, little thief she was, she'd taken both presents and was now holding them, refusing to return them.

"Give them back, Cordi, they're mine!" He'd yelled at her, stamping his foot in anger.

She'd only laughed at him. She knew they were his, that's why she wanted them, because she always wanted everything that was his.

"Cordelia!" They both turned to see their mother in the archway of the room, hands on her hips. "You stop that now and give Cedi back his presents. Otherwise there'll be no desert for you!"

Cordelia seemed to deflate.

"Yes mummy." She grumbled, extending her arms so he could take his things back.

Winifred nodded her head and turned back to the kitchen to check on dinner. As soon her back was turned Cordelia pulled her arms back, dropping the tie to the floor and stamping on it, and breaking his wand in two.

Then she'd laughed at him again and skipped away.

The tie might be saved, but the present from Goodwin, that he'd made so much of, was ruined and couldn't ever be fixed. She'd known it was what he'd valued the most of the two gifts, so that was the one she'd destroyed…

Looking at her now he felt as though she were searching for the same thing, to find out what he truly valued above everything else. He shivered, the thought lingering in his head that, if he told her, she might destroy that too.

His mind came back to the question at hand.

He would save Enchancia if he could, but if it had to burn to the ground he could live with that too.

He wanted to rescue Sofia, but that wasn't the complete truth either.

Taking a deep breath he let the words stumble from him, his heart's desire, his most elemental truth.

"I can't live without her. I want…I _need_ her by my side always. I want the power to destroy utterly anything or anyone who would ever dream of taking her from me.

Silence greeted his admission.

The three in front of him were still as stone, seeming to look inside him and he heard the whispers again, the clacking, chittering sounds of hundreds of unseen beings.

"And what are you willing to give to have what you want?" The question was spoken by all three of them at the same time.

Knowing his answer had to be nothing less than the deepest truth, Cedric looked inside himself. He had only one chance this time it seemed.

"Everything I am, my blood, my body, my soul. I would give anything to keep her all the days of my life."

All three of them smiled, but it was Cordelia who spoke now.

"Who is to say you're lifetimes will be of equal duration? We cannot give the power to prolong life when it should end any more than anyone else. We are humans not gods."

Another elemental truth.

The potion he took to halt his aging was a bit of alchemy that skirted the line between black and white, but even though it could give him more time, there was nothing that could make him immortal. There was nothing that could save a person from a mortal wound. Eventually every person came to their end and not even a deal with the darkness could give more time when there was none left.

Still, Sofia was sixteen years younger than he. Surely there were very few circumstances under which her life would be shorter than his.

Cordelia lifted her hand from its place on the armrest of her chair and turned it palm up.

In it appeared a golden bracelet, not something dainty or feminine but a cuff which would cover half his forearm, ending just below the incantations he had tattooed on his arms.

"What is it?" He asked, not moving yet.

"It's a shadow keeper." The man said to him. "You are stronger than you know. We can see it clearly.

Yet we also see how you never do more than wade into the deep well of your power.

The cuff will help you move beyond your self-imposed limitations, it will give you gifts, it will change you into the person you were meant to be. In addition to this we will give you the means to defeat the one who lusts for your heart's desire. You will have everything you require to return her safely to your side and keep her there for the rest of her days.

But for this you _will_ pay with your body, and blood, and being.

Take the cuff and you may borrow them."

Cordelia gestured to empty air, but suddenly it was empty no longer.

The whispers which had accompanied him since he entered the tower now took shape if not form. Filling the room with terrifying translucent, obsidian creatures which were neither living or dead.

The shadows of death.

The horrifying creatures that had long been spun into tails to terrify misbehaving children and titillate in every Sorcerer's ghost stories. They were very real.

"The cuff is both gift and payment." The snake woman spoke now. "You will have all we've promised in this life. But upon your final breath, you will become what you see around you, and your soul will be drawn here, to never rest in our service. Everything you are, all those you love, every memory you cherish will fade with time, till you are nothing more than the receptacle of our will." The woman smiled and he saw that her choice of chair was not arbitrary. Two longish looking fangs contorted her beautiful face into something so grotesque he felt himself shiver.

Cordelia stood now and moved to him slowly.

When they were face to face she took hold of his gaze with her own, forcing him to keep his eyes on her in a way he barely understood.

There was something cold on his arm, and then a sound like a heavy metal door slamming shut. Suddenly the cuff was on his arm and the room was empty once more save for the two of them.

He wanted to be angry, but he knew just as they had been able to see into him, to know what he really wanted, they must have also known he would never turn away from their offer, no matter what waited for him afterwards.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short it's mostly just connective tissue, getting us back to the mountain where the final few chapters take place.**

 **I wanted to express my gratitude to everyone who's been following this story. Especially to those who've been reviewing. I really loved writing this one. It's probably my favorite of anything I've done. I'm just an epilogue away from finishing the initial draft but I've been putting it off because I'm sad to let this Cedric and Sofia go. So if you've been enjoying it, thank you, thank you for reading!**

 **Enough of my rambling…..**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

"NO! No, no, no! Cedric how could you?"

Before the last words of his story where finished Sofia's arms were around him.

"I had to." Was all the answer he could give.

She reared back suddenly and there was anger burning in her eyes.

"You _didn't_ have too!" She yelled at him. "I can't believe you thought I would play the helpless princess languishing away till my prince came to rescue me! I escaped the castle on my own. I was coming back to you. I had to help the villagers but I would have found a way to let you know where I was. And then we could have found a way to take Enchancia back together! You didn't have to turn, at the first hint hardship, directly back into the darkness!"

Cedric remained completely calm as the storm of her anger rained down on him. And when it was over he looked at her with an expression Sofia could only call indulgent, as though he thought her the most sublimely naïve person on the earth.

"There is only one other way I know of to have defeated Magnus." He said, his voice solemn as a single finger came up and stroked the purple jewel at her neck. "And I promised you, on our love, I would never take it from your neck again."

A strangled sob escaped Sofia then and she pulled him close once more.

"I would never have made you break that promise! I would have done it. We would have found the way together, but I would have done it."

"Do you really think I would have let your suffer the curse under any circumstance?" Cedric's words were rough and grainy now as he rubbed his face along the column of Sofia's throat. "What kind of a man do you think I am, to sit back and let the woman I love suffer in my stead? Whether we used the amulet or I made this bargain, there was no other outcome."

He took her face in his hands then and forced her eyes to his.

"There was no other outcome, Sofia."

She wanted to argue, but she could offer no alternative, and in the end it was already done. Yet at the back of her mind there was a tingling, something that didn't make sense to her.

"I don't understand." She started, brushing back the silver gray hair from his face. "The amulet breaking the cuff broke the bargain you made. But how did you break the rules?"

Cedric's face fell then, and he lowered his head until his forehead rested on the cushion of her breasts.

"The day we took Dunwitty back, you went out to fight one of the shadows. What's the last thing you remember before you woke up on the steps of the castle?"

Cedric's voice was muffled by her skin, but Sofia could hear the inexplicable pain in it.

"I…I don't know. I used your wand to try to hurt it, but it had no effect. Then the thing surrounded me. It was terrifying. I swear I could feel how much it wanted to hurt me. How it was looking forward to killing me. And then…nothing, I must have passed out."

Sofia jolted in surprise as Cedric let out a keening sob.

Then suddenly he was kissing her, his mouth devouring every inch of skin her dress exposed, lips sliding across the swells of her breasts, the bones of her collar, the column of her neck, her jaw, her cheeks, her eyes.

Cedric's hands grasped at Sofia with desperation. One gripping at the back of her neck, the other diving beneath her gown to hold and kneed her hip as though only touching her skin could convince him she was really there.

"It did kill you." He wept into her shoulder, his arms becoming vices that held her so tightly she had trouble breathing. "It did kill you Sofia. One of Tilly's men scared it off before it could finish with you, but it killed you. He brought your lifeless body back to the castle. I…I…"

He stuttered and hiccupped now, as though dreading the next words.

"I didn't mean to. I didn't know it was even possible. But the pain was unbearable. I'd done everything I could do to save you, and you died anyway. Died at the hands of a thing I'd brought. It was as if I'd killed you with myself. And I…I couldn't stand it. I begged you not to go. I begged you not to leave me."

Cedric looked up at her then and there was defiance shining in his eyes even as they continued to shed streams of tears.

"I brought you back. You and our child, and I'M NOT SORRY!"

Sofia heard his words and felt the world telescope in on itself.

She'd never needed a trio of insane dark wizards to tell her Cedric was more powerful than even he understood, or that there was something elemental inside him which seemed to hold him back. But the power to give life! The power to bring back the dead!

Such power was mythical.

It permeated story after story, legend after legend. It was a fairytale she'd come across many times in her years of study as his apprentice, but there was no one in recorded history who'd ever been able to achieve such a thing…until now.

"Sofia look at me." His words were softly spoken, but they held a kind of quiet demand.

She lifted her eyes to his again and there was something new in them: resignation.

"I don't care what the price is. I don't care what they do to me. I didn't know what I was doing when I brought you back, but even if I had, it wouldn't have stopped me. There's no life for me without you."

"And what about me?" Sofia didn't realize she'd also begun to cry until she felt the wetness drip from her cheeks and nose. "Cedric they'll kill you. They'll kill your for this and what about Miranda? What about me? What is there for _us_ without _you_?"

He leaned forward gently and kissed the tears from her face as a hand fell softly on the swell of her stomach.

"You'll have each other and this little one. If they come for me, you have to promise me you won't fight. You have to remain safe, for our children."

She dissolved into his embrace then, and they cried together.

She wanted to scream and to rail. It wasn't fair! It wasn't fair what he was asking. He was making her chose between him and their babies. They were a family! She loved them all beyond her words to express. How could she have to choose between saving him and keeping their children, _his_ children, safe?

And how could he sit there and ask it of her when he'd taken the selfish path and chosen her above all else?

Was it never her right to be selfish too?!

"Cedric let me in!"

They startled at the sound of someone outside. But when the person began to pound on the door they only held each other closer.

The sound stopped after only a few bangs, but it wasn't a reprieve.

They watched as the doorknob began to turn, and the heavy wooden barrier moved of its own will to reveal a shape in the doorway.

Sofia had not seen her for years, would not have recognized the woman standing in front of her. If she'd seen her on the streets she would have felt pity for this creature, perhaps tried to help her, but never would she have made the connection between this haggard sylph and the proud, elegant woman who'd been her sister.

It was only the sound of her voice, the accent which was only shared by one other person she knew, that told her who stood before them now.

"Cordelia?"

The creature smiled at her with something that might have passed for affection.

Cedric rose then, taking Sofia with him. When they were both on their feet, he stepped in front of her, putting himself between her and his sister.

The other woman smiled a slightly unhinged smile at his actions, but then her face darkened.

"You're in trouble," she sing-songed almost delightedly.

"Did they send you to bring me back?" He asked.

She laughed then, a full throated sound that made Sofia's stomach roil.

"It's too much, Cedric. You needing my help twice now."

Cedric grimaced at her.

"Is that what you found so funny on the mountain, that I'd come to you for help?"

"Well you must admit, it's a tad bit hypocritical given the tongue lashing you gave me the day I left for Helhiem." There was triumph in her eyes.

Sofia shivered as she remembered that day, remembered Calista falling into her arms as she wept and watched her mother abandon her.

"Do you really think that? I came to you because I needed your help to bring my family back together. You left because you wanted power more than you loved yours." Cedric's words were cutting, but Cordelia didn't flinch.

"Think that if it contents you, Cedi. But you and I are exactly alike. You can twist the excuse anyway you like, but in the end it's all about getting what you want, just like it was for me."Cordelia smirked at him and even if he wouldn't admit it, Sofia knew her husband had been pegged down to his most elemental essence in a single sentence.

"Maybe it's because we're so alike or maybe it's because I'm still your sister and I love you, but I came here to help. I _want_ to help you. But you have to be honest with me."

Cedric snorted derisively at her pretty words.

"What help is there, Cordi?"

Cordelia turned her eyes on Sofia then and the look she gave made the younger woman's gut clench in fear.

"Well, bringing that as a peace offering would be a good start."

Three sets of eyes settled on the dip in Sofia's throat.

Had it only been moment's ago she'd wondered when her turn to be selfish would come? The thought sent a caustic shiver down her spine and Sofia stood paralyzed as conflict lit within her.

Could she really give the Amulet of Avalor to someone she knew meant to use it for evil? The amulet had chosen her because it trusted her with its potentially limitless power. And she was all too aware its corruption could make Enchancia's week under Magnus and Elliot look like a pleasant dream by comparison.

Even so she felt her hands begin to tremble, wanting to rise to the clasp at the back of her neck despite all the very real reasons why they mustn't.

Before they could Cedric's fingers were caressing the jewel again. She watched as they smoothed up and down the stone reverently before sliding onto her skin. His hand left the field of her vision but she felt its touch leaving an electrified trail up her throat, until it came to rest under her chin.

A slight pressure caused her to tilt her head upward and his eyes were waiting for hers. They were full of the decision she seemed to be suddenly lacking and when he spoke his tone held no room for argument.

"The amulet stays where it is."

Cordelia deflated.

Finally stepping in the door, she closed it behind her.

"It was worth a shot." She shrugged. "Did you really bring someone back from the dead?"

The shift in conversation seemed abrupt to Sofia, but Cordelia didn't appear to notice as her hungry eyes went from the amulet to her brother.

His only reply was a nod.

Cordelia's gaze settled back on Sofia then and there was something in it that seemed almost smug.

"It was Sofia wasn't it?"

When Cedric nodded again Cordelia broke out in a delighted peal of laughter.

"Merlin's Mushrooms what are you so thrilled about now?"

The anger in Cedric's voice seemed to check her for a moment, but then she smiled brightly at him.

"I just like being proved right. All these years, I knew what you were, what you were capable of. I knew you were more talented than you could ever hope to dream. I tried to provoke you into letting go a thousand times."

There was a genuine, if strange sort of affection in her voice now.

She knew Cedric and Cordelia had more than their fair share of sibling rivalry between them, but she also knew Cordelia loved him in her own way. Certainly more than she was willing to let on, or Cedric was willing to see.

"It was the cuff, Cordelia, it must have been the cuff. It's the only answer."

"Don't be a fool Cedric. You've let Goodwin beat you down till you believe every terrible thing he's ever said about you. But you never stop to ask yourself why.

Do you really think he belittles you because he doesn't believe in you?" Her voice turned dark then, "he belittles you because he's afraid of you!"

Cedric face went blank at his sister's words, but Sofia knew he was already discounting the possibility she was right, even as Sofia realized the truth of it.

"He's terrified of the power you possess and what you could do with it. He's always known if you chose to follow the same path as I have, nothing in this world could contain you. And the only way he could control you was by hurting you.

The cuff did only what we said it would. It is incapable of giving you such a power. Do you really think if we possessed such knowledge we'd have given it away so cheaply?" Cordelia waited a moment for her words to sink in. "You have to come back to the mountain with me now, before they send the shadows to drag you back."

"NO!" Sofia had seen Cedric nod, accepting his fate, but she couldn't. There had to be another way.

"I'm not taking him back to be punished Sofia. But he has to come before them and challenge them."

Sofia knew Cedric was wearing the same look of astonishment she was.

"Challenge them? How?" Cedric's voice was cautious, as though he wouldn't allow himself to hope.

"The shadows told me one of them killed a peasant girl and that she was taken to the castle. Then you brought someone back. It seemed likely they were one and the same. The only thing I didn't know was who the girl was. But I doubted you'd care that much for a complete stranger. Now I know for certain it was Sofia, it might be a way out for you.

If the shadow attacked Sofia, even unknowingly, then we broke the bargain first. All of this was to bring her back to your side after all. It's enough for you to accuse us of having gone back on our word, to demand the right to a challenge."

"And if I don't?"

"Then they're going to kill you and claim their new slave right now. Either way you have nothing to lose."


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: For anyone following my other fic "Once Upon a Time", I'm sorry there wasn't an update for that story this week. I'm at a pivotal point in the plot and I need a little more time to draft the next couple of chapters and make sure I'm getting where I want to go before I feel comfortable posting and committing to stuff I won't be able to take back. But I promise I'll be put up a new chapter for that one next week.**

 **Also I pick on Prince Hugo so much in my stories I decided to give him a break. Besides I never resolved whether or not he's still walking the earth after kissing Sofia way back in 'how to make a birthday perfect', so I decided to create someone else to pick on. Can we all agree any brother of Hildegard's would be trouble? Good….**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

This second visit to Helheim was nothing like the first.

Before they even came within sight of the mountain, they heard the clapping of thunder. It was as though the mountain sensed they were near and wanted it known how angry its occupants were.

Then shadows began to appear, hundreds of them, lining both sides of the road, hissing and laughing at them, those that could still speak calling his name menacingly. Cordelia silenced them with a wave of her hand but they still stood there, a procession of eager forms impatiently leading him to his execution.

When they reached the obsidian demons the woman who'd sat in the snake chair was waiting for them. Her tattered clothes billowed with the wind caused by the electric charge in the air, lightning striking the ground around her almost constantly.

"We thought you knew better than to try to weasel out of a bargain made with the dark, Sorcerer Prince."

Before he could answer Cordelia spoke, her voice loud and strong, as though the insanity the darkness caused was receding with time spent away from this place.

"Cedric is not here to surrender. He brings a challenge."

The snake woman smiled at that, her fangs glistening.

"Then come forward. Come forward and try your luck." Her voice was indulgent, amused, as though she would enjoy getting to play with him a little before watching him die.

Cedric felt Sofia's arms tighten around his waist. He turned on the horse they shared, and a look passed between them. Squeezing her hand he tried to give her comfort.

"I'm sure this is more fun than any of them have had in decades." He wanted to sound confident, but his voice squeaked at the end.

"Centuries actually,"Cordelia corrected as she dismounted Sofia's horse.

Entering the tower they came into the same circular room where he'd made his original plea for help. It was somehow bigger this time.

Instead of three chairs, there were at least twenty arranged in a circle. Cordelia led them to stand in the center and rather than take her dragon chair she remained standing with them.

In the blink of an eye the temperature in the room seemed to drop and a draft wound its way around, lifting their clothes. The candles in the rusted chandelier above them sputtered a moment before coming to life and then, without having entered from anywhere, the dark Sorcerers of Helheim appeared, standing behind their chairs.

"Cordelia, you should sit." The man who sat the Cerberus chair spoke, his reedy voice filling the room.

"I cannot sit." She answered him. "And I cannot condemn my brother. Our shadows broke the bargain first. They were only meant to harm the usurper king and his servants. But the one who killed wrongly killed the princess."

There were murmurs around them and Cedric watched as a few faces turned to stare at him with sudden, naked interest.

"So it's true. He brought her back from the dead!" A man sitting in buzzard chair spoke. "And he was able to remove the cuff."

The snake woman rose from her chair.

"We have never before let a person who broke their word to us live. But we have also never had one among our number who could defeat death. Your transgressions could be forgiven….If you were to join us. Become one of our number and we will show you how to wield the powers you now know you possess."

Cedric felt Sofia trembling as she grabbed his hand in both of hers.

He knew she was afraid of these people and what they would do to him. But he suspected she was now equally afraid he might be seduced to their side as Cordelia had been. After all, he'd spent many years wanting the very things these sorcerers could give.

"My life is with my wife." Cedric was surprised to hear how strong his voice sounded.

He was equally surprised to realize he meant it. There was nothing here for him. Nothing he could gain that would make up for the loss of Sofia and their daughters.

"It may be that there is no life for you at all sorcerer. Your wife may have been hurt in the battle, but you still profited from our bargain and we have gained nothing for our help. Such an imbalance cannot be allowed to continue."

"He has the right to a challenge for his freedom." Cordelia countered.

There were more murmurs before the man in the Cerberus chair stood again.

"Very well. Dark is falling. Take him to the roof Cordelia. If he lives through the night he is free. If he fails we will have our new shadow tomorrow and his powers will be ours."

Suddenly the room was empty save for himself, his sister, and Sofia.

"Come with me."

Cordelia began walking and a staircase appeared in front of her.

They climbed up and up, as though the tower were endless. Each time they passed a window Cedric could see the sky outside was growing ever darker.

By the time they finally reached the top, it was like pitch outside.

"What's going to happen Cordi?" His voice shook slightly, the strength of only minutes ago receding before fear of the unknown.

Cordelia ushered them into an empty room and closed the door behind them. Without warning she walked up to him and threw her arms around him.

"I do love you, even if I've never been the best sister."

Cedric hugged her back, knowing whatever he was about to face must truly be horrible.

"During the night, the demons of the other world come to play on the spires of the tower. They are our guides and teachers, but they will know when they see you you're not one of us. You must fight them off. If you can resist until morning you'll go free. If they win, you'll be a shadow."

"Has anyone ever survived?" Cedric asked, fear churning in his gut.

"A few… a very few."

Cedric nodded, giving her one last hug before turning to Sofia.

She was in his embrace instantly, her lips on his. Her kiss was desperate, as though she could give him all her strength, all her power through that one touch.

She refused to release him until Cordelia finally put her hand on his shoulder.

"You can't delay anymore."

Sofia's mouth broke from his with a sob and her hands held his face, her eyes as intense as he'd ever seen them.

"I love you Cedric."

He nodded.

"I know."

Cedric could tell she was trying to smile, remembering it was the way he'd answered her the very first time she'd said those words to him.

"I'll never stop." She declared passionately, taking a hand from his face and placing on his chest, over his heart. "This is where I live. This is where I'll always be. I'm a part of you, don't forget it."

He bent and kissed her precious lips one more time.

"I love you with everything I am Sofia. I won't let anything part us. I promise."

With that, Cedric walked out of her arms and towards the door which appeared before them.

Without looking back, he opened it and stepped through.

A path led from the door out to the top of the mountain.

Taking a deep breath Cedric pulled his wand from the pocket of his robe and began to walk.

He had no idea what to expect but he imagined perhaps he would be engulfed by menacing creatures intent on eating his flesh or drinking his blood. Nothing appeared before him except a cloudy mist, not particularly out of the ordinary considering how high up they were.

Cedric continued to walk and the mist grew thicker as the air grew colder and thinner, but still nothing happened.

It was becoming harder and harder to breath as he continued on, and with every twist and turn he took he felt his nerves getting the better of him. Every sound made him jump, every turn had him expecting his doom.

It made the lack of oxygen all the more urgent.

Suddenly it felt as though there was no air at all. Turning he found the path gone and the mist rolling in on him so he couldn't see either the way forward or the way back.

Cedric stood still gasping in lung fulls of nothing, panicking as he tried desperately to figure out what to do, when suddenly the world went black….

Cedric groaned. He felt as though he'd been hit by a horse _and_ its cart.

He couldn't remember what he'd been dreaming about but he knew he'd thought he was going to suffocate. As he pulled in gulp after gulp of air he felt himself calming down.

Cracking open his eyes he saw Wormwood perched on the headboard of the bed cawing at him. The bird looked insistent, but Cedric shut his eyes and turned over, ignoring the noise to spoon himself to the soft, warm curves beside him.

In a move that was very unlike him, Wormwood jumped from the headboard and landed right on Cedric's shoulder, squawking directly into his ear.

"Alright, alright, you infernal pest, I'm awake! Did you fly all night just to be here in time to ruin my sleep?" Cedric grumbled, shooing the bird away.

His head still felt foggy and he tried to grasp at the reason Wormy was so insistent he wake right this minute.

James' wedding.

Cedric groaned again. Last night had been the rehearsal dinner. He didn't remember drinking that much, but as he examined his memory he found a rather large gap, which meant he'd probably drunk much more than he realized.

It would account for his current state. He must be thoroughly hung over. He laughed a little settling his hand on the curve of a bare hip and pulling it into his already rousing groin.

If he was this bad off, Sofia was probably ten times worse. He'd have to brew them something to get through the day.

"Rise and shine dearest." He said, leaning in to kiss the back of her neck.

His mouth was just touching the spot under her ear when he inhaled, wanting to fill his lungs with the scent of lilacs and sunshine.

Instead he was greeted by the scent of sweat.

Cedric's eyes shot open and he reared away, his actions so sudden they caused him to fall off the bed, hitting the stone floor painfully.

Normally he would have let out one of his colorful exclamations, but his mind had simply stopped, unable to do anything but stare at the stranger tangled in his sheets.

The woman turned now, her thin blond hair falling over brown eyes that smiled at him familiarly.

"Forgotten how to use your legs huh?" She smirked as she looked down on him.

Throwing back the covers she rose and kneeled down to climb in his lap, pushing her breasts in his face.

"As long as you haven't forgotten how to use this." She gave a little laugh as she grabbed his erection and began working him. "I have a little more time before my shift begins, how bout a last little bit of fun?"

Cedric was struck dumb, staring at her in horror, until she rose up on her knees and tried to sink down on him.

Without even thinking about it he pushed her away, dumping her on the floor unceremoniously.

The woman screeched in anger and jumped to her feet.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"What the fuck am I doing? What the fuck are _you_ doing? Who the hell are you? How did you get in here?"

Cedric pulled himself up now, taking his robe from its place at the end of the bed and flinging it around himself as though it were magical armor meant to protect him against an invading army of ogres.

The woman just looked at him as though he were the most pathetic asshole in existence.

"Oh that's how it is huh? You've got some nerve chasing my skirt for months and then playing like you were too drunk to remember fucking me all night. What, are you afraid I'm going to be hounding you to make an honest woman out of me now?" She tapped her foot on the cold stone for a moment as though she actually expected an answer, then laughed contemptuously. "You weren't that good!"

With that she turned on her heel, picked up what looked to be a maid's uniform and stalked out of his tower naked, slamming the door behind her.

Cedric's knees went out from under him and had he not been standing close enough to the bed, he would have found himself on the floor again.

"What the hell is happening?" Cedric's head fell into his hands and he screwed his eyes shut as he tried to remember the last thing that happened before he woke up.

It was so hard, as though there was something fighting him, but eventually it came.

He remembered arriving from the isles late in the morning.

The Queen and his mother had greeted them on the steps of the castle, taking Miranda for some grandmother play time while he and Sofia trudged their way back up to the tower. Opening the door, they'd used a spell to make the dust from two months of disuse vanish and then they'd started unpacking.

They were only staying for two days, but their clothes for the wedding needed to come out and be hung immediately or Violet would have to spend extra time steaming wrinkles out before they could be worn.

He remembered Sofia stripping off her travel gown and pulling him into a steaming hot tub to bathe before dinner and how the sight of her naked and wet had been so arousing he'd had to make love to her right there, sitting her on his sudden erection and letting her ride him until there was more water on the floor than in the tub.

They'd joked about the joys of sorcery as they used magic to clean up their mess and then he'd picked her up, still naked and wet, laughing and pretending to fight him, and thrown her on the bed for one more round before dinner.

He remembered the beginning of dinner as well, but then there was nothing until just now.

Cedric's mind recoiled from the images of what he'd woken to.

It wouldn't matter how drunk he was, how out of his mind, he would never, NEVER betray Sofia. In seven years he'd never so much as looked at another woman. In truth he hadn't looked at another woman in a great deal longer than that.

Why would he? Sofia was everything he'd ever wanted. The reality of her was even more wonderful than his long ago dreams had been.

Rising he ran to the closet to dress.

He had to find her.

Opening it he made a habitual move to the left only to find his things messily hung on both sides.

Cedric's stomach plummeted violently.

Where were her clothes?

Suddenly a sickening thought took him.

Had Sofia come up after him and seen that woman in their bed?

He couldn't imagine what she must have felt. He might not be much but he was hers and she loved him as no one ever had. Her heart must be broken. Oh God, had she left him? Was that why her clothes were missing? The thought caused so much pain Cedric felt his stomach drop again and this time it caused thick yellow bile to rise, flooding his mouth.

Cedric dressed erratically, his only thought to find Sofia. To try to explain he had no memory of anything. That he loved her and only her. That he would do anything, pay any penance, if she would only forgive him, if she would take him back.

His hair still sticking up in every direction, his socks, pants, and shirt haphazardly thrown on, his vest unbuttoned, and robe open, tie completely forgotten, Cedric bounded down the tower steps into the main part of the castle.

The wedding wasn't for another few hours and so he checked the banquet hall first thinking everyone might still be at breakfast, but it was empty.

Running to the residence he made for Sofia's old rooms.

Bursting into the sitting room he found the pocket doors that led into the bedroom standing open and a little girl sitting on the floor in front of the toy castle playing with her dolls.

"Miranda!" Cedric all but yelled startling his daughter.

He ran to her, intent on throwing his arms around her, but when she turned he stopped in his tracks.

"Hello Mr. Cedric. What are you doing here?" She got up and skipped over to him, her initial surprise forgotten. "I wish you were going to do some magic tricks at uncle James' wedding. It's going to be so boring. Princess Maya isn't even going to wear a big, pretty white gown or veil."

The little girl looked like Miranda, but she couldn't be. Her hair was completely auburn like Sofia's, no strands of silver in her bangs at all.

Without realizing it, he went down hard on his knees, the impact only vaguely registering.

The little girl stepped close to him, a look of genuine, if childish, concern on her face.

"Mr. Cedric are you alright?"

He stared at her and his heart cracked in two.

"Who are you?" He asked, his hand reaching up of its own accord to caress her cheek and run through her monotone locks.

She only smiled at him and giggled. It was his little witch's laugh down to the sunny tinkle in her high voice.

"Mr. Cedric you know who I am." She backed up then and gave him a very grown up curtsey. Her sparkling blue eyes telling him she thought he was being silly and all this was a joke. "I'm Princess Miranda Helka of Freezenburg."

He couldn't control the sob that escaped or the way he knew he looked as though she'd just smacked him.

The poor little girl seemed honestly upset to have hurt him, and so she put her arms around him, hugging him in a way that was so familiar it caused him to cry all the harder.

"Don't be sad Mr. Cedric." She said, petting his hair.

Cedric couldn't help himself. He threw his arms around her and picked his little girl up, burying his face in the bend of her tiny neck.

"What do think you're doing with my daughter?"

Cedric turned to see a tall, powerfully built young man with short dark hair and piercing gray eyes staring at him accusingly.

Cedric only held his little witch tighter.

He was about to tell this intruder exactly where he could go when a familiar form in completely unfamiliar dress entered the room as well.

"What's going on in here?"

Sofia looked at him as though she were utterly surprised to see him and Cedric could only stare back shocked as she came to stand next to the strapping young man, undoubtedly a prince, taking his arm familiarly.

"Sofia?" His voice was barely a whisper as he took her in.

Over the years he'd seen her happy, sad, angry, pregnant, sick, exhausted, and the god's knew what else. But if he'd passed her like this, he might not have recognized her.

Her auburn hair was swept up into an elaborate updo. She wore a crown that twinkled with diamonds and sapphires and three ostrich feathers sprung from a matching broach attached to the side of her hair.

Her dress was the most ostentatious thing he'd ever seen her wear, watered royal blue silk, yards and yards of it that rustled as she walked, weighed down by a veritable fortune in jewels, sewn into the fabric, dripping from her ears and hanging from her neck.

Her face was painted with a heavy layer of makeup. Her eyelids were pink, blush rouge highlighted her cheeks and her lips were glossy and red. Heavy black coal outlined her eyes and she'd even painted a fake beauty mark above the corner of her lip.

She'd never looked like this, not even on all hallows' eve.

"When you speak to my wife you will address her by her proper title, sorcerer." The Prince snapped at him, imperiously.

" _Your_ wife?"

"Carl, it's fine. Why don't you go and make sure James doesn't need some last minute…resolve stiffening."

"If you think I'm stepping one foot out of this room while _that_ man has my daughter in his clutches, you're a bigger idiot than I've been giving you credit for."

Cedric saw red at the man's words and began reaching for his wand in its sleeve pocket. But Sofia remained calm, as though she were used to being talked to in that way.

Completely ignoring the insult, she stepped up to him and smiled, though it was tight and obviously unnatural.

"Mr. Cedric, if you don't mind I'd like my daughter back now." Her words were polite but there was an air of command in them he'd never heard before.

Cedric watched, feeling helpless as Miranda twisted around and leaned down, making it impossible for him to keep her.

"Are you alright bunny rabbit?" Sofia's face softened and she looked down on Miranda with the adoration Cedric had seen come into being on the night their daughter was born.

"I'm just fine Mama. Mr. Cedric was sad and you always say a hug can make anything better. So I thought I'd give him a hug."

Sofia nodded, but before she got the chance to say anything else the Prince stalked up to them both and ripped the girl from her arms, turning on his heel and stalking out of the room.

"I'm sorry, the King can be…harsher than circumstances call for sometimes."

Cedric just stared at her.

"The King?"

She gave him a funny look.

"Yes, my husband, King Carl Heinrich."

"You're the Queen of Freezenburg." The words felt like ash on his tongue.

"Yes," she nodded, and Cedric sensed a deep sadness in that single word. But she brushed it off quickly and was looking at him expectantly now. "Was there a reason you were in my daughter's room?" Whatever softness had been in her voice was gone now and she looked at him with suspicion, suspicion tinged with a bit of pity.

Looking down on himself he felt suddenly embarrassed, though why he had no idea. Sofia had seen him in every state a person could be in as well, yet she looked at him as though he were nothing to her beyond the mild curiosity of this moment.

Taking a deep breath he gave her the honest truth.

"I was looking for you."

She stepped back from him, clearly surprised.

"Why would you need me?"

Cedric didn't know how he should answer her. The pain and stress of the last hour seemed to come crashing down on him and he did the only thing he knew to do when he was in pain. He took Sofia in his arms.

Sofia sucked in an astonished breath and went rigid, but didn't push him away.

As stiff as she was, the familiar, beloved feel of her calmed him and he held her close, willfully ignoring her obvious discomfort.

"Sofia, I don't know what's happening. I don't know what to do. I woke up this morning and everything is wrong! It's wrong."

The pity he'd seen hinted at became predominant and he realized she was allowing him to hold her out of that natural desire she had to give comfort to others, even those she didn't especially care for.

"What can I do to help you?" Was her kindly reply as she reached up to stroke his cheek.

A puff of air left his mouth as he looked down at the floor desperate and defeated.

"Tell me who I am to you?"

"I don't know what you want me to say? We barely know each other. Who do you think I am to you?"

His head shot up at that.

He wanted to scream at her, shake her, he wanted to hit himself until he woke up from this terrible dream.

He wanted so badly to believe this was nothing more than a lucid nightmare, a terrible hallucination he would be freed from at any moment, but the floor felt solid, and the woman in his arms had substance, and everything around him felt as real as real could be.

And if it were nothing but a dream why couldn't he find the courage to tell her the truth? Why wouldn't the words come out to explain everything she was to him, everything they were to each other, all he felt for her?

"Where's your amulet?" He asked instead as he forced himself to let her go.

She gave him a strange look.

"I don't know what you're asking."

"The Amulet of Avalor, where is it?" His words came out harsher than he meant them too and she recoiled from him again.

"I've never owned a piece by that name."

Her expression said everything she thought about him without her having to utter a word.

"Mr. Cedric I think you should see the doctor. If you'll forgive me, you seem very ill."

With that she turned her back on him and walked away.

At the door she looked back, shaking her head and pinning him with another pitying glance. Then she was gone.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Whoa! Banner week, an update for all three of my in progress stories! So here we go... more trippy weirdness!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.~O*O~o.

Cedric remained rooted to the floor until the click of Sofia's heels was nothing more than a distant echo.

He wanted to run after her. He wanted to find Miranda. He wanted to wake up!

Instead he remained unmoving, indecisive, unsure whether he should believe the evidence of his senses or continue to tell himself he only needed to wait a few more minutes and all this would be over. Dreams only lasted a few seconds after all. Surely his mind would swim back to consciousness any moment now!

When nothing happened, he found himself slowly making his way back to the west tower.

"Cedric!" His least favorite voice echoed down the hall as Baileywick rounded a corner and stalked up to him, a sheet of paper waving in his hand.

"Here's your list of projects for the weekend. The King would like everything finished by Monday morning."

Baileywick shoved the paper into his hand as he brushed by. Not even bothering to stop.

"This is too much. I won't have time to do any of this with the wedding today." Cedric called after him.

That caught the steward's attention and he stopped rushing to turn on his heel and pin Cedric with a confused glare.

"Why would _you_ be at the wedding?" Baileywick's voice held a wealth of superior amusement. As though he were one of the step sisters inquiring why Cinderella thought she had a right to go to the ball.

Cedric had to bite his tongue to keep from asking why he _shouldn't_ be at his own brother-in-law's wedding. Instead he fell back on what appeared to still be the truth even in this bizarre delusion he was suffering from.

"I'm the royal sorcerer." The words came out flat.

Baileywick's eyebrow shot up into his hairline and he let out a decidedly ungentlemanly snort.

"Hmm, an unfortunate circumstance to be sure, but we must endure what we can't change."

Cedric felt himself bristle at the steward's insult, but what had he expected? There was no world in which they would ever be friends.

"Still, royal sorcerer or not, your attendance has never been called on for these sorts of occasions. I don't think you should expect it ever will."

With that Baileywick pulled out his pocket watch and began to grumble audibly at the ninety seconds he'd just wasted indulging the overblown ego of a second rate hack, before turning on his heel and hurrying down the hall.

Cedric looked down at the list, all his rage and confusion and pain exploding as he looked at the paltry tasks he was being asked to perform while his family celebrated without him, while his wife thought she was the wife of another, while his little girl barely knew he existed.

Without warning the list burst into flames, and Cedric jumped back. Dropping the quickly disintegrating paper he watched it burn to nothing on the floor, leaving only a few specks of ash and a black mark on the polished marble.

Without really making a conscious decision Cedric turned down a corridor that took him away from the west tower and into the castle vaults.

Pulling out his wand he spoke spell after spell, one to put the guards to sleep, another to unlock the numerous vault doors, and a third to paralyze the griffins.

The jewel room had already been rummaged through, no doubt by Princess Amber, for the wedding. But sitting on a stand tucked into the corner was the only gaudy bauble he had any interest in.

It was here, as it likely must have been all those years before Sofia had come to the castle, sitting in wait.

Cedric found himself once more indulging the frightening possibility that this wasn't a dream.

If it was than the amulet might simply be here because dreams were impossible to understand anyway, so why try?

If it wasn't than why was the amulet here collecting dust and not around the neck of its chosen princess?

It was wrong. It was all wrong!

How could this be happening? Why hadn't he awakened yet? Cedric took a deep breath, trying to keep the pain at bay lest something else go up in flames. As he did, he saw the amulet flair and start to grow.

"Cedric." He heard the soft whisper coming from nowhere in particular, and shivered involuntarily.

It was Sofia's voice calling his name. Sighing it the way she did when they were in bed.

"Cedric." Her breathy, pleasure drunk voice surrounded him once more and he saw the amulet light again.

He took a shaky step towards the jewel he had once desired more than anything but now felt something closer to healthy respect for.

"I don't remember you talking." He said to it, feeling as though he were surrendering the last shred of his sanity by doing so.

"We barely know each other." The words once again seemed as though they came from everywhere and nowhere instead of emanating directly from the necklace, yet they were still in Sofia's voice.

This time it was the words and inflection she'd used not a half hour ago in her old bedroom.

"What do you want?" He crossed his arms over his chest, gripping his wand hard.

"To help you." It giggled in childlike mirth and he found the sound grated on him as much now as it had coming out of the mouth of an eight year old girl he didn't yet have the good sense to love.

"What could you possibly help me with?" Cedric ignored the tremor in his voice as he asked what he knew was possibly the stupidest question any person had ever asked in the history of stupid questions.

"Sofia."

Her name echoed off the walls of the jewel room. This time it wasn't Sofia's voice which answered him, but his own. And each time it echoed it was different.

"Sofia!" When he called her from a great distance, excitedly hurrying to her side, because even after years and years, his heart still raced at the sight of her, even when they'd been apart for the smallest amount of time.

"Soffiiiaaa." The way he sing-songed it when he was teasing her.

"Sofia…." The way he groaned it as he sunk into her.

His gut twisted.

In this dream/world/hell none of those tones existed.

It was all wrong!

His mind was made up before he even realized it. Reaching out, he ripped the necklace from its stand and turned, walking out of the vault without a second thought.

When he was clear of it he waved his wand without looking back and heard the sounds of the vault doors closing and the guards and griffins stirring.

He was back in his tower only moments later, pacing the floor as Wormwood cawed above him.

Pulling the amulet out of his pocket he stared between it and his raven.

"I don't suppose you want to give me the power to talk to animals?" He asked.

The jewel was suspiciously silent now.

Feeling frustration rise in him, he tossed it rather carelessly on his cluttered work table and tried to decide what to do.

If he was dreaming he wouldn't be able to wake himself so there was no point continuing to constantly think about that possibility. He needed to figure out what was going on.

Why did he believe reality was so different from what it was?

He stopped pacing to realize he wasn't entirely sure what everyone else thought reality was. Knowing no one expected to see him for the next two days he ran to the candelabra which was the secret pulley for his ingredients drawer.

It gave a familiar ring, and then the bookshelf turned and the drawer thrust out.

Cedric didn't want to admit, even to himself, how happy he was for that little bit of familiarity.

Turning to his very favorite spell book he flipped the pages until he came to one near the end, a potion that would make memories images. Picking the book up he kneeled down in front of the long drawer and began pulling out the necessary items.

Everything he needed for this potion, being rather obscure, was here. But he noticed there were a great deal of empty vials in the drawer, more common ingredients were all gone or dangerously low.

With a whimper he realized why.

Sofia was the organized one. In the decade she'd been his apprentice it had been one of her duties to catalogue and replenish his supplies and afterwards she'd kept the responsibility for the plain and simple fact he was hopeless at it.

But she said she hardly knew him, which meant it was very unlikely she'd been endlessly picking through their potion stores.

Why did even the simplest thing have to cause so much pain? If he never woke up, how would he live this life?

Hours later the potion was done.

Taking out his wand he asked the bubbling cauldron for something he wasn't entirely sure he wanted.

"Show me the memories which passed through these halls. Recast the lives lived within these walls. Reveal my past and my love's too. From the day she came show me all they think to be true."

Cedric stood still as the potion rippled. Light burst forth and then the surface became a glasslike window to the past.

He watched eight year old Sofia arrive and alight the royal coach at the bottom of the castle steps. He saw Miranda give James and Amber the royal crest badges she'd sewn herself. He watched Rolland command him to make it rain rose petals.

He felt an echo of humiliation as he saw the wand he'd chosen backfire and make it rain for real. He had broken it in two the next day when it ruined another spell here in his tower. The thing was utterly defective.

Yet even knowing that, it hurt to hear Rolland tell Miranda, and especially Sofia, that they were 'stuck with him'. He'd been so caught up in making the wand work he'd missed that the first time.

He watched his beloved walk through the castle with her new siblings and end up falling back.

He watched himself bump into the scared and overwhelmed child, acting like a complete bastard while she treated him worshipfully.

It was strange watching them as they'd been, watching himself interact with little Sofia, completely unaware that she would soon become his everything. His past behavior to her made him feel such shame he wanted to reach into the cauldron and slap himself silly.

But then, she wasn't his everything in this version of events.

The scene changed to something neither of them would have been privy to all those years ago.

Rolland entering the jewel room.

He examined the shelves critically, searching for something. So intent was he on his mission he completely missed it when the amulet lit in its corner.

Insensible to the jewel's call, he picked a yellow gold necklace with a large ruby off one of the shelves and stalked determinedly out of the vault.

It was this necklace and not the amulet which he presented to Sofia only an hour later.

And it was that necklace Sofia was wearing when he bumped into her again in the halls.

Without the amulet to catch his attention, he was even more horrible to the little girl this time. Calling her daft for not being able to pronounce his name correctly before stalking off and leaving her in tears.

Without the amulet to tempt him he stayed as far away from her as he did from the other children. And so he never tried to console her after her terrible first day at Royal prep.

His intentions had always been false. He'd secretly hoped he could get her to give him the amulet if he pretended to be friendly, but he now realized that, to a little girl in turmoil, it must have seemed like a lifeline. A single person, no matter how strange or socially awkward, reaching out a hand in her hour of need.

He realized suddenly that offering to show her his workshop had been the catalyst for Sofia's belief there was better in him than he led on. It was the act which led her to continue attempting to be his friend even when he rebuffed her.

Without it she never bothered with him again.

She was polite whenever they crossed paths but otherwise she avoided him, remembering each time she saw him how mean he was.

Because he'd been cruel she never went to him with her sorcery homework and never became his apprentice. In fact she'd failed the test completely and had bitterly decided magic was simply something she'd never be good at.

He was still asked to change the gargoyles into golden horses in this past, and he still failed just as spectacularly thanks to his nerves.

But without Sofia to take his part when King Magnus boasted about Graylock's talents, he never put on the magic show where Sofia dumped the lizard transformation potion on herself.

And so his mistake with the gargoyle seemed to cement his abysmal lack of talent in Rolland's eyes.

Cedric watched angrily as he was continually edged out of his duties. Finally he saw himself reduced to nothing more than making a few paltry potions while Rolland borrowed the services of people like Graylock and Wu-Chang from friendly kingdoms. Always with the pity of his fellow monarchs because poor Rolland was really up a creak with that utter failure of a sorcerer he couldn't get rid of.

As Cedric saw that the worse they thought of him the worse he became (as though their disparagements were some sort of self-fulfilling prophecy) he watched Sofia's life unravel as well.

Without the amulet Sofia would never become friends with Clover and her birds. She would never become friends with him. She would never have the adventures which had shaped her personality and cemented her loving, adventurous nature, and she would never have the jewel's sometimes harsh, but necessary, discipline.

All she had was Rolland and Miranda's haphazard attention and rather indifferent parenting and he watched as she withered from it, becoming a person he hardly knew. Someone he wouldn't really want to know.

He watched as she grew bitter with Amber's shabby treatment. He saw Sofia turn vindictive, until she decided the only way to survive in this harsh and lonely new world was to cut her step-sister down.

Sofia decide to beat Amber at her own game, and he felt almost sorry for Amber as he watched it unfold. The competitive streak that always pushed his Sofia to strive to be her very best became an ugly character flaw in this person.

First Sofia stole Amber's friends. Then she used all sorts of dirty tricks and lies to put Amber out of favor with the teachers and princesses at Royal Prep, with James, and finally with their parents.

He saw Hildegard, the snake who was the most popular princess at Sofia's school, become her best friend. Something Sofia desired initially because she wanted to wound Amber. But the girl's influence was poisonous and even when glimpses of his Sofia would turn up they eventually ended up quashed.

He watched as Hildegard introduced Sofia to her older brother, Crown Prince Carl Heinrick. He was handsome, rich, pompous and, to Cedric, repulsive.

But to Sofia he was everything she had been taught to want, everything she'd embraced believing in. And he watched Sofia fall in love.

Cedric's heart twisted painfully as he watched his wife kiss another, flirt with another. He knew he had no right to be angry, obviously he was the insane one, the potion was making that evident. But he couldn't stop thinking of Sofia as his, or seeing all this as some sort of alternative interpretation instead of the factual account of the past.

And so he nearly collapsed in agony when he saw Carl Heinrick encourage the young princess's affections, plying her with gifts and compliments and promises, until he had her under his power.

And once he was sure he had her, Cedric watched as he destroyed her.

He watched the boy belittle her for fun, insulting her, often in front of others, for her humble beginnings. He watched the Prince isolate her from her friends and family, cutting off any influences on her except his and his sister's. He picked at Sofia for every little thing she did that wasn't exactly to his liking. And finally, when he had her believing he was the only person who would every care for her, he forced himself on her. Telling her the whole time she should be grateful someone like him would want her.

The desire to leave the potion and kill this man began to overwhelm him as he watched Sofia wake from the dream that she was loved too late to change her fate.

He saw Miranda being born in this life and even though she wasn't his, he felt his love for her spark into being all over again, his tiny, precious babe.

But in this past Sofia wasn't surrounded by her mother, his mother, her sister, and the woman of the castle who all loved her. She didn't have him behind her, rubbing her shoulders, telling her how proud of her he was, how much he loved her, all while quietly having a nervous breakdown.

She was alone in Freezenburg, save for a midwife and a few nameless, faceless servants who cared nothing for her.

And it was only moments after her daughter was born that Sofia's 'husband' burst into the room, screaming at her for her failure to provide him with a male heir.

Miranda was her only solace. The only person in life she looked at with any joy. The only person who brought out a Sofia he recognized.

For Cedric there was nothing.

Without the amulet, without each other, they were both lost souls.

He watched the last days play out almost indifferently.

Sofia and her family arrived from Freezenburg for the wedding. He was there on the steps to greet her along with the other members of the senior staff, but she paid no more attention to him than she would a coachman, perhaps less.

He saw himself chasing that maid while the royals partied in the ballroom.

Cedric turned away as the caldron showed him the images of himself bedding the girl.

But he couldn't make the sounds of Sofia crying softly as her King demanded his marital rights and then set about being as cruel as he could.

And it was to the sounds of her violation he bashed his head against the stone wall of his workshop, his mind looping back to the now ridiculous hope he would wake.

Cedric was dizzy and bleeding when he saw the necklace light on his desk.

"It's your job to protect her now." Rolland's voice echoed through the room this time.

The words sounding very much like the those he'd said to Cedric on the morning of Sofia's eighteenth birthday when they'd told her family they were getting married. "Surely you're not going to abandon her?"

Was he going to abandon her?

She wasn't his Sofia. There was no such thing as Cedric's Sofia. It was nothing more than the fevered desires of an apparently sick, lonely man.

Yet she'd been kind to him downstairs, kinder than he had a right to expect from her.

Even if there wasn't any part of his wife in this Sofia, in the deepest parts of _himself_ , where no one else could see, she was there. She was running through his blood, beating with his heart, breathing her life into him.

Cedric touched his chest and heard her voice.

"This is where I live. This is where I'll always be. I'm a part of you, don't forget it." It wasn't the amulet this time. Where it had come from he didn't know. When she'd said it he couldn't remember.

But he knew he couldn't simply accept what he'd seen in the potion.

"No, I'll never abandon her."

"Then I'll help you."


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: So I think I mentioned before this story is finished. I finally finished my drafts of the last chapters and so it's done done now. I couldn't decide whether I should split the last chapter in two or not, because it came in at almost 6,000 words. In the end I decided to split it because, as I'm sure everyone has noticed, I'm not the best at editing and trying to proof 14 pages at once was just too much for me (especially with the toddler who is, as I type this, throwing a tantrum in front of me because there is a miniscule piece of crust left on her PB &J sandwich). That being said, I don't see the reason to ration chapters. So I'll be posting the last three -18, 19, and 20 (the epilogue)- this week, a day or so apart. **

**Thank you again to everyone who's followed this story and especially the people who reviewed. It means the world to me!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric turned toward the glowing purple jewel sitting on his desk.

"How would you help me?" Again a stupid question.

But before the Amulet could respond there was a timid knock at the door.

Little Miranda stood in his doorway, in her nightgown and slippers, a fearful expression on her face.

"What are you doing here, princess?" Looking out the windows Cedric realized the sun was setting.

He'd spent the whole day brewing the potion and watching his supposed past drift by. On a high summer day, like this one, that would mean it was sometime after nine o'clock.

'Isn't it past your bedtime?"

The desire to tell her he knew she was to be in bed by eight o'clock each night was ridiculous, both because she wasn't his daughter, not really, and because, as he knew all too well, things like time where mostly meaningless to five year olds anyway.

"I was asleep, until he came in screaming."

The little girl's lip began to tremble and whether or not she was really his became immaterial when weighed against his overwhelming desire to comfort her.

"Don't cry my little witch." He soothed, kneeling down and putting his arms around her.

Cedric spared a moment to wonder at how comfortable she seemed with his affection. Without the least gesture of surprise or trepidation she threw her little arms around his neck and allowed him to pick her up. Once she was off the ground Miranda laid her little head on his shoulder, seeming to breath in his scent.

"Who was screaming?" He asked, sure he already knew.

"I didn't know who else to ask. Mommy needs help." She answered instead, one hand coming out to pet his vest which still lay haphazard and unbuttoned beneath his open robe.

"You made a good choice little witch. I'd do anything for you." He smiled and kissed her forehead, leaving off the words that wanted to follow…. 'just as I would for your mother.'

Cedric carried the little princess back to her room as she'd asked him to and found the reason the little girl had turned to him, a virtual stranger, instead of anyone else.

"Promise you won't tell?" Her tiny voice implored. "Mama wouldn't want anyone else to know."

Sofia sat on the floor next to the childhood bed, her voluminous nightgown falling off one shoulder, her face in her hands, soft sobs shaking her shoulders.

When she heard his foot falls she looked up and gasped, immediately trying to cover herself.

But when Miranda motioned to be put down she stopped, instead holding her arms open so the little girl could run into them.

"I thought you were asleep? How did you leave the room without my noticing?" Sofia was still crying, sobbing out the words.

Miranda let her mother hug her tightly and stroked Sofia's disheveled curls in a comforting, heartrendingly adult way.

Walking up to them cautiously, Cedric kneeled down in front of the distressed queen. It was so hard. It went against every instinct and inclination he had, but he repeated over and over again, in his head, that she wasn't his. That he couldn't pull her into his arms or wave his wand and make whatever had upset her disappear.

The room was gloomy, illuminated only by the sinking sun. So it wasn't until he was directly in front of her Cedric saw her face was clean of the thick layer of cosmetics she'd been wearing before, or why she had taken to wearing so much of it to begin with.

He couldn't stop himself from sucking in a shocked breath as he saw the patchwork of bruises covering her face, her neck, and even her bare shoulder. Most were yellowish or light purple in appearance, having begun healing, but the circle around her eye was darkening to a sickening black right in front of him.

"He hits you." It wasn't a question and so Sofia only stared at him, shame darkening her features.

The potion hadn't shown him that, or it was a new enough occurrence he hadn't been looking when the images had floated past.

"I'm a huge disappointment. He's just tired of trying to ignore it."

The excuses she made for him broke the resolve Cedric had been trying to muster and he pulled both Sofia and Miranda into his arms.

Sofia stiffened at first, but after only an instant she relaxed against him, all but collapsing into his embrace and beginning to cry again.

Cedric arms tightened, holding Sofia and Miranda as close as he could, stroking Sofia's hair and reveling in the feel of Miranda cradled between them. When Sofia finally calmed, he laid a gentle kiss to the top of her head.

"Oh Sofia, how could you ever think that?" He whispered. "You're the most wonderful person I've ever known. And even if you weren't, there's no excuse for what he's done. I'll kill him." The last fell out before Cedric even knew he was saying it and she pulled back from him frightened.

"You mustn't! Don't even say something like that. What if someone were to overhear?" Sofia's voice was adamant even as she seemed to search his face. "Why would you even care?"

Her words cut deeply, but he remembered everything he'd seen in the potion. They'd spoken more today than they had in the last seventeen years combined. Her doubt was more than reasonable.

"Because no man who beats the mother of his child should be allowed to continue drawing breath." He replied confidently, sure it was as safe an answer as it was true. But then he couldn't help himself. "And because…I do care."

Pulling his wand from his sleeve pocket he laid it gently on the top of her head, moving slowly so she wouldn't be frightened.

"Sanitatum," the wand lit briefly and the bruises on Sofia's face began to fade away.

She sucked in a breath and touched her fingers to the skin under her right eye, which was no longer black.

"Thank you." She whispered, catching his gaze with her own, sincerity shining in her expression.

While they'd embraced Miranda had fallen asleep and she snuffled softly in her mother's lap as Cedric leaned forward, his face inches from Sofia's.

"I would do anything for you." He answered, his voice equally hushed.

Sofia shook her head slightly, even as their faces seemed to draw closer and closer.

"Why?"

"Because…." Instead of answering her, Cedric pressed his lips to hers.

He had no idea what he intended, never having consciously decided to kiss her to begin with, but he was well and truly shocked when instead of pulling away, or slapping him as he knew he most assuredly deserved, she made only the tiniest noise of surprise and then leaned into him, eagerly returning his kiss.

For a few blissful moments Cedric let go of everything, leaving it to float away as her lips parted on a moan, and his tongue swept into her mouth. She tasted exactly as he remembered her, sweet and soft like berries and cream, and he felt as if he would lose himself in her, that everything would be fine from that moment on as long as she continued to kiss him. But then there was a noise from the hall and Sofia pulled back stunned.

Her hand flew to her mouth and a look of horror crossed her face.

"I…I shouldn't have done that! I don't know why I did that!" She seemed desperate to find the words that could somehow erase what they'd just shared.

Standing up, with Miranda's sleeping form still clutched in her arms she stepped back, putting an arm out to fend him off if he should try to follow.

"Thank you for helping me." She said hurriedly, nothing like real gratitude in her voice now. "But you have to leave."

Cedric's face fell as he realized how foolish he was to believe she could care anything for him. He'd merely taken advantage of a broken woman in her weakest moment. The thought sickened him.

"I'm sorry. I'm the one who shouldn't have done that. It was…unconscionable. But Sofia, you need to leave him. You can't stay until he hurts you badly enough it can't be fixed. And you can't let your daughter grow up thinking any man has the right to do that to her. Please, I'll help you."

Sofia seemed shocked by his audacity. Standing stone still for a full minute, obviously confused by his offer, before shaking her head earnestly.

"There's nothing anyone can do." Her words held a finality that made him angry.

"You only think that because he's made you believe it's true. It isn't! Please Sofia, if you won't accept my help than tell your parents. They would never let anyone harm you."

She outright laughed then, a sound so far from mirth it hurt him to hear it.

"You think they don't know what he is?"

"I know Rolland would never hit your mother or let any man hit his daughter."

"If you believe that you're a bigger fool than everyone says you are."

He couldn't help rearing back as though she'd slapped him. Even though it had been a long time since anyone had called him such a thing, he was sure it could never hurt the way it did coming from her.

"Then just leave. What could be worth more than your life?"

For the space of a few heartbeats she seemed to honestly ponder what he'd asked her and her face collapsed as though she were watching her world fall apart. And then just as quickly her expression morphed into something so haughty, so superior, it twisted her face till she was barely recognizable. Rising to her full height, she lifted her head so she was looking down her nose at him.

"I'm the Queen of Freezenburg as my daughter will be after me. That's what's more important. Doing my duty to my family and to my kingdoms, both of them, that's what's more important. It's something the likes of you could never understand. Now go! And if you say anything about any of this…."

Sofia let her threat hang there in the air between them.

Cedric felt something inside him grow cold and hard…it was hope he supposed.

Bowing low, exaggerating the gesture until it was itself a kind of mockery, he swept towards the door.

"Your Majesty need have no fear. Nothing worth noting has taken place."

With that he disappeared leaving behind what he knew would be a puff of green smoke and the smell of magic.

Once back in his workshop he let himself slide to the floor, unbothered by the pitch blackness of the room.

His mind swirled uncontrollably.

This wasn't a dream. His memories were the dream. They must be. What other explanation could there be?

A last kite of hope drew him to his worktable. Flicking his wand he lit the candles around the room as he rummaged through his spell books.

Finally he found the one he wanted and began flipping pages.

Cedric tried spell after spell, ones to lift enchantments and curses on the castle, ones to restore the true memories of its occupants. None of them worked because there were no enchantments on the castle, and no one had lost their memories. He was simply insane in any way that couldn't be cured!

That particular spell frightened him more than anything else for how could he have the wrong memories but be unable, even by magic, to call forth the right ones?

"Are you ready to accept my help now?" Purple light burst from beside him and Cedric turned to the amulet still lying on his table.

"What do you suggest?" He sneered in response.

"Do I have to suggest it? You know, if there's something you want, it might be better to just… take it, before obstacles present themselves." Sofia's voice mocked him.

They were almost exactly the words she'd spoken to him the night before they left for the wedding. Words she'd spoken while lying in his arms.

He asked himself again how the amulet could know these words, since they'd never been spoken?

"I thought you were on the side of right. I have a memory, however dubious, of you carrot and sticking me for a full day because I wasn't as good as you liked."

"With each need informed, for better or worse, the power is granted to obtain any desire or break any curse."

Cedric stared at the necklace feeling slightly dazed.

"That's not how it goes." He argued weakly

"Of course it is."

"I couldn't. I…I don't want a kingdom. I don't want to be king!" He yelled.

"Don't you?"

Cedric's hands went to his head, cradling it as it started to ache.

Did he?

He'd wanted to years ago. It was only Sofia, her love and goodness, which made him turn away from that dream. Her love had been worth more than a crown. Her love had given him more than an empty title and cold throne. She'd given him love, purpose, a real life!

But of course she hadn't. He had none of those things and yet….

"I don't want a crown." The words came out sure and true, but they only made the amulet laugh.

It giggled really, that same childish tinkle he both loved and loathed.

"No, you don't want a crown, you want a woman. But that woman wants a crown. She wants it more than anything else. If you took the throne she'd leave him and come to you. Come to your arms, come to your bed."

Cedric turned away from the beautiful purple glow of the amulet and stared into the gloom of his tower.

He loved this tower. He always had, even before Sofia had brought her love and warmth into it.

No, she'd never done that, which was why it felt so empty now, so oppressively vacant.

But she might still.

Would she love him if he rescued her from her brutal husband, if he gave her Enchancia as an engagement present? Part of him said she'd hate him forever, but that part also said Sofia cared nothing for titles or crowns, that part believed they'd spent the last seventeen years together falling deeper and deeper into each other's hearts.

And she'd proved that part wrong only minutes ago.

For the umpteenth time he reminded himself she wasn't his Sofia and yet, the taste of her was still on his mouth.

Cedric's tongue darted out, wetting his lips, savoring her essence. It stirred in him all the familiar feelings: desire, comfort, safety, and love… above all else love.

There was no world for him without her, even if it couldn't be as he remembered it.

Looking down on himself, Cedric realized he was still a mess. That wouldn't do.

Rushing to his closet he pulled out an outfit at the back, his hand going to it without question it would be there.

Touching it sent a strange emotion through him, déjà vu, even though both his memory and the potion told him he'd never worn it before.

It was something he'd acquired without reason it seemed.

A black silk sorcerer's robe embroidered with golden suns and silver moons. The garments that went underneath matched it precisely. Black knee pants and socks, a gold vest, black dress shirt, and a silver bow. It was all exquisitely made, far better than even a royal sorcerer should possess.

Why did he own it if he'd never had any expectation of attending the wedding? Why would he have it made at all? His memories told him it was meant to compliment Sofia's array of black and white ball gowns, but of course that couldn't be true?

Shaking away the disturbing thoughts he put it on slowly, making sure each piece was perfect, that his bow was expertly tied, that the robe fell in exactly the right way. When the mirror told him his attire was immaculate he ran a comb through his hair until it too sat perfectly.

Walking back out to the workshop Cedric grabbed the amulet off the table determinedly and fastened it about his neck.

A cloud of green smoke erupted and the workshop was once again empty.

The sound of precocious giggling still echoing off the walls.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: I'm not even going to try to lie, I was watching Fantasia with my kids when I wrote this chapter and my son is obsessed with "Night on Bald Mountain/ Ave Maria". It obviously took over the end of the chapter.**

 **Also I feel totally silly writing spells. But I'm just going to embrace the silliness!**

 **Thank you again to everyone who reviewed last chapter. I didn't want to flood your inboxes four days this week, since I'm hoping to update every day, so I thought I would say thank you here! Mr. Shortman92, Kyonomiko, Lilactime, and Chocandniillarule you guys are THE AWESOMEST BEST!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Just a tiny puff of green smoke would never do.

After all, if one is to fulfill a lifelong ambition… and win the woman who fills you so utterly your psyche would break simply so you could comfort yourself with delusions you've lived an entire life together…one should do it in style!

The entire ballroom was suffused in green mist as he appeared in the middle, wand held high, a confident sneer painting his face.

No one ignored him this time as they had on so many occasions before. Instead the music stopped in a cacophony of slurred notes and confused murmurs and then all eyes turned to him.

It struck Cedric that the stares of so many kings and queens, so many people who all thought so badly of him, should terrify him. After all the part of him that whispered he could be powerful, commanding, sensational didn't really exist. It was merely an echo from his delusions.

Yet there was no fear, no anxiety that he might fail.

"Cedric what's the meaning of this?" Rolland stood from his place at the royal table, anger clear on his face and in his tone. Though Cedric felt sure it was more from embarrassment he had interrupted the proceedings than any true fear…yet.

Cedric's first instinct was to flinch. He should stoop, he should cower as he always did before his imposing King. But a voice inside him whispered words that had never been spoken. It told him Rolland was a man, just as flawed, just as unsure as anyone else. He was just better at hiding it.

Cedric's smile grew as he waved his wand, putting everyone to sleep except Sofia's family, Baileywick, and a single guard. And as Rolland and the others saw what he'd done, with barely any effort, the fear began to blossom.

Turning to the guard he spoke with command.

"Fetch Queen Sofia."

It was amazing how satisfying all that dread was, almost as amazing as the quickness with which the young man scrambled to do as he was bid.

"Cedric, answer m…." Rolland never finished his sentence, because Cedric sealed his mouth with a hard flick of his wand.

When the others realized what he'd done, James and the king of Freezenburg were over the table and charging at him.

Another flick and a few careless words and they were frozen in place, still very much aware, but unable to move.

"If you will forgive me, Rolland," Cedric rolled the 'r' of the king's name dramatically, "I prefer to wait until her majesty gets here. And as for you, _boy_ ," Cedric turned towards the frozen King of Freezenburg, "don't for a second think you'll get off as easily as the rest of them. Once I'm done with them, I have _special_ plans for you."

He'd barely finished speaking when the ballroom doors opened and the guard returned with Sofia, still in her night clothes, a royal blue robe with the crest of Freezenburg on one shoulder keeping her warm.

"Cedric what are you doing?" Sofia looked around, curiosity plain on her face, though she didn't seem particularly disturbed.

He turned and began walking towards her even as she motioned the guard away and continued towards him. They stopped only when they were a hair's breadth apart.

She looked at him expectantly.

"You asked me why I care. Do you truly want to know?"

A single eyebrow arched into her hairline and she stared at him, her look almost challenging.

"I do." She whispered, stepping impossibly closer, until they were so near she had to tilt her head far back to meet his gaze.

Her look seemed to capture him and Cedric fell willingly into it, reading her with knowledge gained over nearly twenty years that never happened.

Sofia wasn't in the least afraid of him. She didn't seem particularly concerned about what was going on around them either. Her eyes seemed to suggest she was well aware of her sway over him, that she knew he held the wand but she had the power.

He saw no reason to pretend it was otherwise and instead he leaned down so his face was obscured by her wild, loose hair and his lips were against her ear.

And as the heat from her body and the scent of lilacs and sunshine surrounded him everything else seemed to fade away.

"I woke up this morning in a life that isn't my own. I don't know if the world has gone mad or only myself. But I do know, down to the very threads that form my existence, you and I are not strangers. You and I could never be nothing to each other."

She leaned into him then, the side of her face caressing his jaw.

"Then what are we, Cedric?"

His hand came up, tangling into her hair, gripping the back of her skull. He pulled her head back and leaned into her until their lips were nearly touching.

Drinking her breath, he let his eyes wander over her beautiful face.

"You're the obsession of my life, Sofia. The arch from which my strength and my power springs, the light that illuminates all I am or will ever be. In my memories you are my love and my wife, the mother of my child and the lover without whom I cannot bear to live.

And I am the man who has worshipped you nearly all your life. I would give anything, my heart, my soul, my magic, even my life if it would make you happy. Sofia walk away from them. Walk away from _him_ and I will give you Enchancia. Become _my_ queen. I already love Miranda as my own. I would be the father she deserves. And I would show you every day of the rest of your life what it is to have a man desire and cherish you."

Sofia smiled at him beautiful and triumphant and nodded her head.

Cedric felt his heart soar, felt so consumed with joy he almost missed it. But he knew her better than he'd ever known another person, and he couldn't miss the way her eyes stared back at him, utterly untouched by his declaration.

It made him doubt.

"Yes Cedric, if you kill them all and take the crown, I'll be your queen and I'll give you everything you want. I'll be everything you want me to be."

He felt as though he were losing himself in her again, and the desire to turn round to the people who stood on the edges of his vision watching them and use the amulet to obliterate them was a temptation almost ungovernable.

All he had to do was rid himself of the people who'd always hated him. Who even in the gentler world of his memories seemed more to tolerate him than actually care for him, and it would no longer matter whether this were some horrid hallucination or reality. Because he would have the only two things that mattered to him once more, Sofia and Miranda.

"Do it, Cedric, for me, for us." Sofia whispered as a hand came up to caress his face.

He turned and lifted his wand, a sneer of pure malevolence lighting his face, until Sofia's mother came into his vision. She sat dumbfounded, watching him with sorrow in her eyes and something inside him recoiled.

His eyes moved around the room. Queen Miranda, James, Amber, Tilly, even if he was truly mad, even if everything he remembered had never happened, he didn't hate them as he knew he should, as he desperately wanted to. Even Rolland, who he'd once desired to lower in a way far more humiliating than anything the king had done to him, he didn't hate…not truly.

"Cedric?" Sofia was behind him, her hands sliding up his back, fingertips molding to the contours of his shoulder blades. Then her front was against his back, her breasts pressing into him. "Cedric do it, do it now! Hurry before the sun comes up."

There was an urgency to her words he couldn't understand.

"Why before the sun?" He asked, looking out the window, puzzled to see that in fact the entire night had somehow slipped away and the world outside was melting from black to gray.

She was silent for a long moment and he glanced behind him to see something like panic in her eyes. Yet when she caught him looking she smiled.

"I want to begin our new life with the dawn. A fresh start!"

Cedric felt the doubt again.

He didn't want to be king, he didn't want to murder the people he still thought of as family, however foolish that might be. But he wanted Sofia. He wanted her more than anything. Hadn't he just said he would do anything, give anything to have her?

But then his Sofia would never want her family dead. His Sofia would stare at him with the pain of such a betrayal shining bright in her beautiful blue eyes and plead with all her heart for him not to walk into the darkness where she couldn't follow.

His arm tingled suddenly under his robe. Touching the spot he felt his tattoo, the Veritas Unveilium Incantation. The spell he'd put there to remind himself Sofia thought he was not just stronger, but _better_ than he'd ever believed he could be.

Ripping off his robe, he tore through the expensive silk of his shirt.

There was nothing on his arm. No tattoo at all. Yet the skin prickled in that subtle way it did whenever he was tempted to do something she wouldn't be proud of. How many times had it, and she, pointed him towards the brighter path?

"Cedric do it! Do it now! Do it or I'll leave at daybreak and never return. You'll spend the rest of your life without me. You know you don't want to do that. You know you can't. DO IT NOW!" She was screaming, and he could feel her trembling in rage behind him.

The amulet around his neck had lit too.

"If there's something you want, it might be better to just… take it, before interruptions present themselves."

Cedric faltered.

He was an inherently selfish being, he'd never tried to deny the truth of that. And his deepest most selfish desire was Sofia. All he had to do was remove a few thorns from their path and he would have her. So why couldn't he do it?

He turned around to face her.

Her eyes pleaded with him, her hands came up gripping his arms, and her body pressed flush against his own.

"Cedric." She sighed his name so sweetly now, all her rage seeming to have evaporated. "Cedric please don't condemn me to a life with him. Save me, please. Only you can save me. Kill them!"

His heart lurched, how could he abandon her? How could he deny her?

Cedric squeezed his eyes shut. His head spinning, becoming dizzier as the grayness outside grew lighter.

And more words floated to him, but this time they weren't from the woman in front of him or the amulet around his neck.

"I love you Cedric." He heard Sofia's voice, his Sofia, his wife. "I'll never stop." She declared passionately. He felt an invisible hand pressing firm and warm on his chest, over his heart. "This is where I live. This is where I'll always be. I'm a part of you don't forget it."

His arm tingled again and Cedric raised his wand, speaking the words that should be written on his arm, that he felt there even if he couldn't see them.

"Lift the veil and now reveal

The secret which in your heart you have long concealed

Let not this guise continue to stand

Veritas Unveilium

Reveal the truth at my command."

The Sofia in front of him hissed at his words and recoiled as though he'd burned her. He heard similar sounds coming from the people around him and suddenly the ballroom melted away and Cedric felt hard, rocky ground beneath him.

The people who'd been dancing, the royal family, Sofia, they weren't people at all. Instead he found himself surrounded by dark, leathery figures with sharp teeth and red eyes, all hissing and spitting and closing in on him as though they would rip him limb from limb.

His consciousness came flooding back into him them and he realized where he was, Helheim Mountain. It hadn't been a dream.

It was a test.

The sun's first rays were just peaking over the mountain and though the creatures avoided it, there was still plenty of shadow to cling to. And they did so now, never touching the light as they stalked closer and closer.

His wand had been in his hand as he'd laid on the ground unconscious and he raised it now pointing it above his head and speaking one last spell.

'When black you find the night

Without hope or help your plight

Fear not the shadows for lack of sight

Illuminate Nos, Illuminate Nacht

From darkness be delivered by this light."

Light shot out from his wand and the creatures recoiled covering their eyes and fleeing from him, flinging curses as they went.

Suddenly there was a tremor in the earth and Cedric sat up.

As he watched, horrified, the ground began to split open revealing a black pit just feet from him. With nothing to cling to Cedric dug his fingers painfully into the hard, dry earth, clawing at it to stop from sliding forward.

But the ground beneath him remained stable. And instead he watched as the sun lifted higher into the sky and the shadows began to melt away. One by one the creatures who'd tempted him through the night jumped into the abyss. They fled back to the safety of the blackness to wait out another day, before returning with the sunset to play on the peak of the mountain again.

When the last one had cast himself in, the maw closed and Cedric found himself alone in the light of dawn.

Looking down he saw he was still very much alive. Lifting his sleeves with dusty fingers, he saw the familiar script on his arms and something else, something so dear it made him sob aloud to see it. The band of gold inlaid with tiny rubies and diamonds sitting on the fourth finger of his right hand.

Cedric stood and began trying to retrace his steps, when out of the morning fog he saw a door. He ran towards it just as it swung open and there, standing just inside, was Sofia.

"Cedric!" She cried out as he stepped over the threshold and pulled her against him.

She came willingly, throwing her arms around him as the door shut behind, burying her face in his neck as the strength of his embrace lifted her off the ground.

"You're alive!" She sobbed over and over again as they held each other.

For a long time he said nothing, simply holding her, burying his face in her hair and pulling in the scent of lilacs and sunshine until he felt nearly drugged.

But then a hand fell on his shoulder and a familiar voice broke in bringing reality with it.

"You had best go. You won, but they won't be happy about it."

Cedric put Sofia back on the ground and looked up from her hair to see Cordelia staring at him with frightened eyes.

"Is that what you do every night?" He asked, unable to quell his morbid curiosity. "You go out onto the mountain and let them take your mind?"

Cordelia nodded.

"They teach us things, whisper secrets. But with each night it becomes harder and harder to tell what's reality and what's the dream. Then eventually you stop trying or even caring to figure it out. You might really be here talking to me, or you might be another hallucination, who knows." Cordelia looked momentarily frightened by what she'd said but then it seemed to drift away from her and she began to laugh instead. "Who knows?"

Cedric wanted to thank her, wanted to tell her loved her, but there seemed little point. Whatever coherency she'd recovered from her few days away from the mountain seemed already to be slipping away from her.

Instead Cedric moved towards her, grabbing her face swiftly in one hand and pulling her near as he laid a kiss on her forehead.

She seemed surprised by the gesture and stopped laughing to look in his eyes. Whatever she saw seemed to make her sad and she turned away from him to stare at the stone wall of the tower.

"Go."

Cedric held out his hand and felt Sofia's slide into it. Then they were moving, down through the endless steps of the tower, into the circular room, now empty of anyone or anything and out onto the mountain once more.

The statues, which had seemed so sentient and menacing on the way up, now looked old and worn, some of them appearing to be crumbling to dust and very much devoid of life. And when they passed the twin demons the whole mountain seemed to fade away, enveloped in a thick fog as though it had never been there.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: And now some sappy lemons to round the whole thing out!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Their horses where still waiting for them, agitated and pawing the ground. Even when Sofia pulled the amulet of Avalor from her saddlebag and replaced it around her neck, it still took her long minutes to calm them.

But eventually they mounted and began slowly making their way out of the dead land that marked the entrance to Helheim.

The place where the grass came back to life was within sight when they heard a cawing above their heads and a black figure came swooping from the trees to land on Cedric's shoulder.

He and Sofia both gave startled cries, but when Cedric realized who it was, his turned into a pleased chuckle.

"So you managed to survive out here did you?" He asked the beautiful bird.

She looked at him with those intelligent eyes and cawed loudly.

"She says she's been waiting for you." Sofia translated, curiosity burning in her eyes.

"I'm glad you found me." Cedric answered, looking directly at the raven.

The bird seemed to nod at that and they rode on for a little longer in silence before Cedric held out his hand. She jumped from his shoulder to his fingers and Cedric looked at her as he spoke.

"This is my mate, Sofia. If you wish to stay with us, I hope very much you will become hers." Cedric watched out of the corner of his eye as Sofia stared at him shocked.

The bird seemed less surprised but turned her body so she could look at Sofia out of one small black eye and squawked once more.

"She says she will think of staying."

Cedric nodded.

"What should we call you then?" He asked, knowing after years of having Sofia translate, that animals either already had a name and were offended when people just gave them another, or cared very little for the entire silly human practice of obsessively labeling everything around them.

The bird cawed in answer and lifted her beak proudly.

"She says she has no name right now, and asks if we have so many ravens we'll need some way to tell her apart from the others."

Cedric nodded, a pragmatic bird, he had chosen wisely.

"I have only one other raven, my familiar Wormwood."

Another squawk.

"She says since that's the case we can just call her Ravenna."

Cedric laughed.

"Very well then."

The bird made a noise and then pushed off his hand to land gently on Sofia's shoulder. She stroked the pretty raven's feathers a few times, which the bird seemed to enjoy, but neither said anything more to the other.

Instead they rode in silence for the majority of the day, until very near sunset when they found a small inn on the road that lead to Glenbonnie.

The inn was mostly deserted and they were given a room and a place in the stable for their horses with very little trouble. So grateful was the innkeeper for guests they were even brought dinner in their room.

As night fell once more, Cedric had never felt so grateful to light a fire the laborious old fashioned way and strip off his clothes.

And he'd never been more aware of how truly, exceptionally lucky he was to climb onto the lumpy mattress, pull the scratchy fabric of the rough spun blanket over himself, and fall into the waiting arms of his wife.

Sofia held him tightly, cradling his head on her breast and seeming unable to stop her hands from running over him as though he might still disappear or be taken from her.

"What happened?" She asked softly.

Cedric rolled so his body was wrapped around her and his face was nuzzled into the valley between her soft, bare breasts.

"I thought I would have to fight them literally, but…." Cedric paused, frustrated, trying to order his thoughts, to explain to her what he himself was still having trouble making sense of.

"When I went to them to find the power to save you they asked me what I wanted. They asked me over and over, until I admitted not what I'd come there asking for, but what was my most elemental desire.

And I told them because I was desperate.

At my most fundamental I have always been and will always be selfish. What I wanted wasn't to rescue Enchancia from Magnus, or to be the hero who defeated the darkness and saved the land and the princess.

What I wanted was you. What I _want_ is you. What I asked for, what I desired more than anything, was the power to keep you and kill anything that would try to take you away.

And I told them I would pay any price.

And so I dreamt.

I woke in a world where you didn't love me. Where everything we shared had never happened. You were another man's wife, Miranda was his and not mine, and I had nothing but the memories of this life, which plagued me as I watched everyone else believe something completely different.

And then they tempted me.

I could have you. I could have our daughter back, if I took the kingdom and killed your family. All it would take was one act of pure, selfish evil, and I'd have you by my side forever more."

Sofia's arms became impossibly tighter around him and her lips found their way into his hair.

"But you didn't?"

He laughed then, hard and somewhat unhinged.

"I wanted to. I almost did. But in the end I couldn't."

"Why?"

"Because even though there was a dubious Sofia in my dream, begging me to take the thrown and save her from a lifetime of sorrow, _you_ were in my heart, as you promised you would be. I felt your light, your love, and I knew I couldn't betray your belief in me. So I chose to do the right thing instead of the selfish one."

"And you won." Sofia sounded so proud of him, but he couldn't bask in her praise as he normally would.

Because fear, swift and breathtaking, reared up to eclipse everything else. Lifting away from her body he pulled himself up on an elbow and took the back of her head in his hand, his thumb caressing her jaw almost roughly as he searched her face intently.

"Have I?" He asked, terrified. "Is any of this real? Or am I still dreaming? Will I wake again in a few hours to find myself in another world? Perhaps this time you won't even know me!" Cedric started to breathe erratically as the thought ran away with him.

"Cedric stop!" Sofia's voice was soft but firm as she took his face in both her hands and forced him to look down at her. "You aren't dreaming. I'm here and I love you."

"I want to, but I'm so afraid Sofia! It happened just once and I'm terrified nothing I see before me is real. No wonder Cordelia is stark raving mad."

One of her hands left his face and pulled the blanket that lay across them down past their waists, before taking his hand and putting it on the small swell of her belly.

"We're here. We're real and we love you. Don't doubt it!"

Cedric stared at their hands over her stomach and then back at her face.

"We're having a baby." He felt himself smile in spite of his turmoil.

Sofia's hand left his on her stomach and began trailing up his arm, brushing softly over the spells on his skin, up around the curve of his shoulder and then down, smoothing over the plains of his back. A slight pressure and their bodies had slid together on the sheets, the small space he'd put between them obliterated.

"A girl," she whispered, her fingers pressing into his shoulder blades, calming and reassuring even as they aroused. "You aren't…disappointed are you?"

His head snapped up, shocked.

"Why in Hades hell would I be disappointed?"

Her eyes dropped from his to stare at the center of his chest.

"You were so adamant, when we went to Mystic Meadows all those years ago to get your wand, that it was to be passed from father to son. What if we never have a son?"

His fingers on her belly changed from merely resting over the tiny swell to caressing it lovingly.

"We've been so mired in drama we never got a moment to celebrate." He started, kissing her forehead since she still wouldn't look at him. "I wish we could have that moment to do over again. So I could find out while you weren't dead in my arms."

She looked up then, her expression still worried, but hopeful at the same time.

"Cedric," she whispered.

"Sofia?"

"I'm pregnant. We're having another baby!"

The hand at her belly slid around her waist and the other, which had been propping him up, slid under her neck. His lips began to shower her with kisses, her forehead again, her nose, her cheeks, her jaw, and then her mouth.

"You make me so happy. Happier than I ever dared dream I could be!"

Eventually the kisses turned hard and wild, Cedric's tongue pushing into the seam of her lips, tangling with hers as they tasted each other.

Sofia whimpered into his mouth as the hand at her waist moved lower, cupping her bottom and pushing her center against his groin.

"My love," she whispered against his lips, a tremor in her voice as she felt the hardness of him nestle against her folds.

Feeling her pressed against the length of his body Cedric's fear began to ebb. This was real. Sofia was real. She was real and she loved him, and she was giving him another child. The thought made him shudder with desire.

He moved so Sofia lay beneath him. She had never been more beautiful to him, more perfect, or more arousing. He wanted to bury himself inside her and never leave.

"My wife," he whispered back, kissing her again, undone by the sight of her under him, eyes bright with want, lips red from his kisses, her body becoming restless with its need for him.

He felt one of her hands slipping down his back. Her nails scratched along his skin and he reveled in the slight pain it caused, the sensation so utterly, tangibly real.

"Cedric please," Sofia pulled her mouth from his, an urgency in her dark blue eyes, "please…." Her hand had stopped moving. Coming to grip the curve of his rear, she squeezed tight, bucking up into him as her legs wound around his hips.

The movement aligned them and with only the barest push forward he slid deep into her.

Cedric's eyes rolled back in his head as he felt her velvet heat gripping him like a vice. He couldn't help the groan that escaped him, an echo of Sofia's as her arms wound around him tightly, pressing them together so that when he began to thrust his whole body slid along hers.

They're eyes met on instinct and he watched the pleasure play in her depths. Watched them widen as he withdrew, achingly slowly, rubbing every inch of his cock along her slick passage as her nipples dragged against his chest, and the soft swell of her belly slid against his torso. He watched them crinkle, wanting to close, though she wouldn't let them, against the feeling of him pushing back in.

A gasp left her mouth and it fell open. Sofia began to form his name on her lips, calling him over and over again even though only the barest of sounds came out.

He saw his own reflection in the dark blue of her irises. Saw his face, contorted in pleasure, his bangs falling over his forehead, moving with the force of his rhythm. Saw the utter rawness of his desire for her as she must be seeing it. And then he had her mouth again, the two of them staring into each other's eyes, drinking each other's cries, holding each other like vices.

"Don't let me go." She whispered against his mouth. "Don't let me go!"

"I never will." He repeated over and over again, as they began to move faster, push into each other harder.

"I was so afraid!" She gasped as her hands ran up and down his back, digging into his flesh, raking trails on his skin. "I knew you would come back to me, I knew it. But I was so afraid they'd take you from me anyway! I thought they'd never let you leave alive!" She cried out the last as one of his hands pushed between them, splaying out against her thigh, his thumb working frenziedly over her nub.

Cedric broke from her gaze then, needing to feel her skin under his lips. He watched her head fall back, and the sight of the long column of her throat, open to him, called his mouth to it.

He kissed her over and over again, moaning against her neck, licking her pulse, feeling her against him and knowing it was no tempting mirage.

"Don't you ever, ever do something so stupid again!" She screamed, as release flooded through her body, causing spasms to wrack the length of her soft, slick body.

Cedric held Sofia tight through the burst of pleasure, and when she began to relax he pulled almost completely out of her and plunged back in one last time, pressing his thumb into her bud and causing her to fall to pieces all over again, taking him with her into the hazy, oblivion of bliss.

The world began to reappear around him and for a single second Cedric felt fear that things might be different again. But when he opened his eyes, he found himself collapsed to Sofia's side as she snuggled against him, sweaty and breathing hard, and smiling at him with pure love.

"I promise." Was all he could get out, as he pulled her close against him again.

She nodded, pulling the blanket over them, and laying her head on his chest. "Good, but I'm still taking you home and sticky spelling you to my side!" She declared nuzzling into him as her hand began to gently stroke at him.

He pulled in a contented breath as her fingers dipped below the blanket to tangle in the trail of hair below his navel.

"And when Miranda is old enough, my wand will be hers." He said the last softly, testing the words out even as he felt the rightness of them down to the very fibers of his being.

Sofia looked up at him, and he could see her shock, even as a smile as brilliant as the sun broke across her face.

"I couldn't give a fig if we have a son or not, Sofia. All I want is to be by your side. To be the man you love and the father of our children. When I said the wand was to be passed down from father to son all those years ago, I hadn't the slightest inkling I was saying those words to the mother of my children. The truth is, back then, I believed with all my heart I would never have a child anyway.

Its' true, it's traditionally passed down the male line, but I was so adamant because I was bitter my father wouldn't give it me. Because it had become a symbol in my mind of how inadequate he thought I was.

But it's mine now and I'm _not_ my father. I won't hold it from our daughter in hopes of a son who may never come, as though he would be more important, more wanted or loved, than she is. She is our first born, the wand is hers whether we have a son or not. Whether you give me two children or ten! I want them and I'll love them because they'll be ours.

"I love you!" She whispered against him, and he felt a single drop of wetness on his skin.

"I love you." He answered back. "You saved me, Sofia, from myself, from the darkness. I'd be lost without you."

She lifted her head then, turning to him as she took his hand in hers. Their fingers entwined and she began to speak.

"When black you find the night." She started.

"Without hope or help your plight." His voice joined hers.

"Fear not the shadows for lack of sight." Cedric felt a tingling in his fingers and he straightened them, instinctively, against the odd feeling.

"Illuminate nos, Illuminate nacht," Sofia's hand mimicked his, so their palms kissed, their fingers resting against each other's.

"From darkness be delivered by this light."

They both watched as a single spark of light floated above their fingertips, brightening the room with a soft glow that rivaled the fire in the grate.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: So here we are at the end! I left it open ended because I didn't want to give up the possibility of maybe writing more at some point.**

 **Also, I'm sure you all have read Kyonomiko's amazing story "The Death of Me" (it's one of my favorite Cedfia stories ever) but you may not know this awesome author also wrote a Jasmine/Jafar story called "As You Wish". It's Ah-mazing and totally got me behind this pairing. It also took over my imagination for the last couple of weeks…hence the ending.**

 **One last thing!**

 **I just wanted to say a special thank you to everyone who took the time to review this story. When I write I'm usually riddled with insecurity and self-doubt. So the kind, uplifting, and encouraging comments you guys sent me meant the world to me! It kept me writing when I thought I should just stop. For that I can't say thank you enough! Okay, I'm shutting it now….**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Epilogue:**

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric was dripping.

Sofia watched from the doorway of the workshop as her husband tried to rake the thin pink slime from his face with gloved fingers as their daughter unsuccessfully stifled her giggles beside him.

"And _that_ is what happens when you drop a beaker into a potion!" Cedric said, pinning Miranda with a hard stare for only a second before breaking out into laughter of his own.

The little sorceress watched her father with adoring eyes as he grabbed a cloth to clean himself up.

Sofia looked at them both and felt her heart clench.

Were it not for the sweep of silver bangs framing the little girl's face, Sofia thought she might have been staring into a scene from her own past. Her beloved sorcerer standing over her, in front of an exploded potion, somehow irritated and at the same time lovingly patient.

"Now, since _you_ dropped the beaker, you may have the honor of cleaning the mess." Cedric said, holding the cloth out to their daughter, who suddenly stopped laughing to give her very best pout.

Cedric seemed to soften for a second, as he was wont to do with his eldest daughter and newest apprentice, bending down to kiss the top of her two tone hair, before shoving the rag in her hand and walking out of the room.

"I'll be back in a bit. Don't forget to scrub out the cauldron too. And no cheating and using magic." He turned a stern face back to her. "You remember what happened the last time."

Miranda stuck out her tongue in response, but began sopping up the mess. Sofia watched as Cedric gave their eldest an evil smirk and then closed the workshop door behind him.

Meeting her on the stairs he put his arms around her and leaned down to give her a long, slow kiss.

Sofia let her body melt into his frame and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"And what have you two been up too?" She asked, as they began walking down the tower steps side by side, Cedric's arm around her shoulder and hers around his waist.

"A potion to make rainbows," He said, smiling from ear to ear. "Apparently our princess does not like it when we visit Enchancia and there are no rainbows after a storm."

Sofia laughed at that. At nine years old, Miranda was still much like her mother. Utterly in love with animals, magic, and rainbows and completely devoted to Cedric.

"Do you ever get a sense of déjà vu?" She asked as they made their way into the main part of the castle. Walking along towards the rear entrance that would lead out to the garden.

"More often than I can keep track of." He said, bending to plant a kiss on her cheek. "She's so much like you, it's heartrending at times. The only difference is this time I get to enjoy her boundless goodness without confliction trying to tear my insides apart.

They stopped at the garden gate to watch the servants busy at their preparations in the open meadow just below the castle. Right now the place was buzzing with people, setting the torch poles, and leaving small gifts and offerings, but tonight the meadow would be empty save for the firelight and the two of them.

The grand thing about having two sorcerers for a Duke and Duchess, so the people of the Ruby Isle told them, was the honoring of the 'old' ways.

They had not always been able to perform this particular ritual. The spring after Magnus had taken over the kingdom and been defeated by Cedric's army of dark shadows, their second daughter Winnifred had been only weeks old and Sofia had been in no condition for it.

They'd seen the difference in the land that year. The way it refused to bloom even after the days became warm, the way the birds took longer than usual to return.

What had started out as a lark, performing an old rite the people of the isle still held dear, had turned into something of a sacred tradition for them. One that might have been little more than superstition before, but with two sorcerers as strong as she and Cedric has become very much real.

Since Winnie's birth they'd never missed this first night of spring, or the midnight ceremony both private and yet communal.

No one would be on the fortress's meadow with them when dark fell, but people would be out in their own fields and meadows, couples joining together to give the offering of love and passion that would make the land bloom, the flowers bud, and the crops plentiful in the field.

And Sofia knew, as they slowly undressed each other, there would be the familiar, thrilling spark of magic that now always surged between them. There would be the moment when Cedric laid himself on top of her on the hard, cold ground and kissed her wildly while entering her and she would cry out with the sheer ecstasy of it and suddenly the earth would be soft and warm beneath her. The wildflowers would shoot from the ground and the trees would flower brilliantly, despite the dark of the night, the birds would start to sing, and all around them they would see a midnight paradise come to life.

They never spoke of it to others. They rarely acknowledged it to each other, but they both knew Cedric had been forever changed by the days they had been separated, that barriers broken down by the shackle the dark sorcerers of Helheim had given him were destroyed forever.

Sofia was sure she was the only one who knew the extent of his powers. Others, even her own family, who'd seen him changed by the bracelet, seemed to assume that because his appearance had returned to normal so had the rest of him.

But he hadn't.

Cedric was no longer weighed down. He could not just sense the depths of his ability but touch down to the bottom of it. Though he couldn't always make something particularly complicated work on the first try, he no longer feared that…anything really was beyond his ability. Often all it took was for her to smile at him, or lay her hand on his arm and suddenly something that shouldn't be possible was and often without a wand in sight.

As he grew more confident in the true extent of his magic, Cedric had begun teaching her how to summon her power without a wand as well. And when they joined their power together they rarely even needed words anymore.

She remembered back all those years ago when she'd told him she loved him for the first time and they'd vowed to spend the rest of their lives making love and magic together. Never had she thought these things were possible.

There were nights when the energy they created together lit the night sky. Once they'd made it rain roses and another time tiny, glittering diamonds.

And it was clear no matter how strong they were together, Miranda would one day out strip them both. Being the recipient of both her parents powers she was already proving she had within her the magic they had in separate parts.

Sofia had never been prouder than the day her father realized it and declared his intention that Miranda would be the next royal sorcerer of Enchancia.

Cedric turned them down the path, away from the meadow and back into the gardens and they walked for a little while in silence. Each of them lost in their own thoughts, both most assuredly thinking about the evening ahead of them.

Poor Violet would be in charge of bedtime tonight, which would be a chaotic thing even if she and Cedric were going to be in the castle. If Miranda had been hard to persuade to sleep years ago, Winnie was far worse.

She was Cedric through and through, from her long dark hair to her stubborn, brilliant, and slightly devious nature. If she had been magically inclined Sofia knew she would need to be worried about their younger daughter. But at four she seemed to be much more interested in the physical world, riding her flying pony, playing dazzle ball, and causing general mayhem, rather than magical.

"You know we won't be able to go on like this much longer." Cedric suddenly said, his grave words pulling her out of her revere.

She looked up at him with a small frown on her face, though she knew he was right.

"Surely you don't think we'll have to leave before the children are grown?" She asked.

"I think we could possible stretch it a few more years, but eventually people are going to start wondering."

Sofia wasn't sure what had brought up this conversation at this particular moment until she saw him bending down to pick an ever blooming lily from the ground. The rare magical flower was a part of the potion they now both took to slow their aging.

Cedric was technically forty-four but he still looked the same as he had the day she'd come to Enchancia castle with her mother to become a princess. For Sofia the age difference was still invisible. She had started taking the potion after Winnie's birth and the difference between twenty-five and twenty-nine was hardly perceptible on anyone.

But he was right.

It would be fourteen more years before Winnie was an adult. Cedric could hardly keep passing off his lack of change for good genes when he was nearly sixty but still appeared to be in his twenties.

"We should have done what your parents did and not started taking the potion until after we were already…mature." She laughed a little to shake off the nervous energy this conversation always caused.

Cedric only snorted at that.

"My father might be content to live with a leaky bladder and a creaky knee for the next two centuries but I am not!"

Sofia wanted to laugh, but she knew it was true. Cedric's parents had let old age settle in before prolonging their lives, and she sometimes wondered if Goodwin had done it because he liked the respect and distinguishment that came with gray hair and wrinkles as well as people's tendency to stop inquiring about one's age. On the other hand, she'd always had the sneaking suspicion Cedric began taking the potion so early for her.

"So I take it you don't want to be the youngest looking inhabitants of Mystic Meadows?"

Cedric made a sour face.

"I thought we might leave the children with your parents and take a trip this summer." He said instead of giving her a direct answer.

"What did you have in mind?"

"How would you like to visit some of the more remote kingdoms?"

Sofia perked up at that. She knew he probably had an ulterior motive for his suggestion. She got the feeling Cedric wanted a second place to call home, somewhere their little family could take off too one day when they're longevity started to raise questions, but the thought of seeing the world was to amazing an offer to pass up.

"Really!" She all but squealed.

"Of course. You've always been one for grand adventure and you've taught me the fun in it over the years! It's been to long since we've had one that didn't involve separation, tears, or bargains with the undead!"

"That sounds amazing! Did you have a spot in mind?" Agreeing completely with his assessment of their last 'adventure'.

"Well, as much as I love Tangu, there's still a great deal more of the world beyond its borders. We could visit your sister for a bit and then head across the desert, maybe visit Agrabah. What would you say to that?"

"Nights riding across the desert with my sorcerer. Days lazing in a billowing tent, away from the heat and sun? I'm not sure I could think of anything better."

"Maybe we'll find a magic lamp," Cedric offered, looking into the distance as though he were seeing it all spin out before him.

"Maybe," Sofia said, joining their hands, and turning her gaze to look where he looked…into their future.


End file.
